the world according to hen

2011

2012-01-01T22:11:00.002+08:00

As usual the time has come for me to summarize the previous year and make new resolutions.

Well, for a start, 2011 wasn't really a good year. There were few big losses in our family. We lost our dear Uncle Michael in March. I still remember that I was at cardiac rotation during that time. The same day when we had a lecture on acute coronary syndrome is the day I found out my beloved uncle died of it. It was really a big tragedy in our family; considering we were all very close to each other and the fact that he passed on at such a young age, leaving behind my aunty and my two young cousins is really too much to bear. It was too unbelievable. What breaks my heart the most have to be seeing and thinking that my two cousins will be growing up without a father. As the months passed by, each of us were slowly coping with his death but still we can't help but to feel the emptiness. He was the "funny guy" in the family, the one who tells all the jokes and make us laugh.

Another big "loss" to our family was Aunty Bunnie getting married and moving to Canada. Don't get me wrong, I'm really super happy that she found someone to spend the rest of her life with, but still, without her in the house feels empty. She was practically a parent/sister to us our whole life. Christmas was definitely quiet and less meriah without her. The usual overflowing of presents from the Christmas tree was no more :(

So that's 2011 for me. Happy/ interesting events were probably passing each posting without problems, vacation to Krabi with the girls, did something I've always wanted to do (shhh, can't tell here), made new, unexpected friends and as the year was approaching an end, I joined a gym!

Still can't believe that during the transition between 2011 and 2012, I was at the hospital with sick babies. Oh well, at least the company was good.

Resolutions for 2012? Guess I will make it up as I go. :)

The Importance of Vacation

2011-07-23T22:30:00.002+08:00

I never knew or felt the true value of a vacation until I went to Krabi. After all the craziness in O&G due to lack of HO which led to continuous EOD calls, having to come to work at 5am every day, and the extreme stress of finishing procedures, which made us almost cancel our trip- we finally had it. Left the ward, packed out bags, switched off our phones and flew to Krabi. And that was the best decision we made.

This was my first ever vacation which was unplanned (because I had no time to plan. at all. ). I just had to get away from the hospital, even if it meant just flying to a foreign land to stay cooped up in the hotel room for 3 days.

And now when I close my eyes and think of Krabi, I actually feel relax and happy...

Just thinking about our amazing hotel room...

Our amazing private pool... The daily swimming in the pool, just floating around or laughing away.....

The beautiful island...clear water...blue skies...

The amazing food.... Every meal with green curry...... daily dose of ice cream...sneaking durian into the room....

Sitting in the tuktuk, or just by the beach, closing my eyes and feeling the wind in my face and thinking "I'm so glad that I'm here; far far away the stress"...

Now that's what I call a vacation............. *smiles*

26

2011-04-10T22:36:00.004+08:00

Well, now I'm 26... wow, 26 does sounds old. Anyway, currently I'm in O&G posting and left Medical with a really heavy heart. Seriously, I have nothing but praises for the medical department of SGH. It's such a conducive working environment- everyone- from the HOD, to all specialists and all MOs- treat us HOs, well, like humans. They treat us as colleagues, instead of looking down on us as "some stupid houseman" or just simply ordering us around since we're "just some stupid houseman" and hence, at the bottom of the food chain. Everyone in medical are generally nice and more importantly, they're willing to teach. I have to admit though, that going through the general wards for the first 2 months was extremely tiring, with the workload and all, but it was still bearable. Because when you're happy, you don't mind being tired. Going through the sub specialties was even more fun! I got the chance to go through every specialty, including cardiology at the new SGH Heart Center. I really had so much fun in medical and I don't think I'll be treated like this in any other postings. Sigh...

And currently I'm going through one that have to live in constant fear and precaution with certain MOs or the fear of making a mistake and being re-tag or fear of being ridiculously scolded and humiliated... *depressed*

Off Day......

2011-03-12T23:13:00.002+08:00

Suddenly feel like talking about my wonderful off day today. Alone, but not lonely...

Started out with waking up late, then brunch with my two besties, who were oncall today, then went off to do some grocery shopping, came home and did some major cleaning- room and entire house, then made chocolate souffle (*ultimate proudness* considering it was my first time baking, and also tasting chocolate souffle even!), then went to church, then made my own dinner, then started on 2nd "baking" project- lemon cheesecake which I put in the fridge, while i went up and put on a soothing lavender mask, and here i am, talking about my day... *smiles*

Who Had It Right

2011-02-06T22:34:00.004+08:00

In any hospital, there'll be so many "young people" in labcoats walking around. How to differentiate between housemen and the rest (pharmacists, dentists, etc)? Just look at the appearance- messy looking, unkempt hair, and rushing to some place- very likely a houseman. All dolled up, with a clean white labcoat, smiling away- the rest!

Just that day we were discussing who had it right. Who were smart enough. Our conclusion- DENTISTS! Here's why:

1. Dentists still get the coveted DR. title in front of their name. Still same salary.

2. Still have on-calls like us- meaning still have oncall money to claim. BUT, unlike our oncall (quote my friend " the hardest rm100 to make"), dentists calls are way less eventful. The worst that could happened? Probably being called to stitch up a severe lip laceration or something. Our oncall, esp during medical, is a constant fear. Chest compression whole night, becoming human ventilator, emergency procedures, tonnes of admissions, etc.

3. There's no overload of dental officers cos there's no mushrooming of "dental schools" or the government unintelligently recognizing so many "dental schools" overseas years back, causing a massive influx of "dental students" and subsequently overload of "dental officers" in hospital and the inevitable eventual reality that "dental graduates" may need to actually fight for a job. Nope, no such thing for them. For us? *big big sigh*

4. Dentists can wear pretty pretty in the ward. Housemen, esp those postcall, will look like a trainwreck.

5. The path to the top is way easier, since there's not much competition.

Damn it!

I'm Still Alive!

2011-01-10T21:08:00.002+08:00

As of every year, here I am recap-ing the year and making new resolutions (even though it's 9 days too late, but better than never right?) 2010 was of course a great, life-changing year- the year we finally graduated, finally started earning my own money. Bla, bla, bla, next thing I know I'm currently in my second posting of housemanship- Medical. Medical is definitely a much busier posting than Ortho, but I have to say I'm really enjoying it. The cases are interesting- so much to learn and the bosses are superb! As my friend puts it, the bosses treat you as equals, as colleague not justly merely a HO they can just inhumanely scold and humiliate like in certain other depts. So, totally love it despite having some degree of pre-call blues now.......

*depressed mood*

Phi Phi Islands

2010-11-17T12:38:00.005+08:00

We dedicated our entire 2nd day for an all-day tour of Phi Phi Island. We woke up to an absolutely beautiful weather, in contrast to the day before. Koice, who works with Kelly's Hotel, recommended us this tour company- Royal Andaman Sea Cruise. Basically, there are 2 types of tours- luxurious and low-cost. Those more luxurious ones usually more than THB 2000 and low-cost ones are only about THb 1300+. In the end we settled for the more luxurious one since she got us a good price of only THB 2000. And this tour was really "luxurious" indeed. Compared to those low-cost ones, this tour goes to few extra places, lesser people on board and nicer buffet lunch. They also had free flow drinks and fresh fruits on board.

In the morning, we were picked up on-time by a comfy, luxurious van. We we brought to some sort of private yacht club where we took our fins and snorkelling gears. There was free tea and coffee for us, while we sat on the porch waiting for other passengers to arrive. Nice~

There were 23 passengers that day and they used a 3-engine boat, which usually would accommodate 30 persons. Which means more space for us :) The ride was smooth mainly because of the beautiful weather which made the sea calm and also the stability of the speedboat. I didn't even need to use Minyak Cap Kapak or tablet maxolon, which I anticipated to use since I get seasick rather easy. The ride took about 45 minutes to reach our first stop- Maya Beach. IF the weather was still bad, a trip by ferry would be better; but that would take about 1 hour++ to reach to Phi Phi.

First stop- Maya Beach! Made famous because of the movie "The Beach". Beautiful place but there's just toooooo many ppl! We stopped here for about 30 minutes to take some photos.

Next stop: Pileh Lagoon for some swimming. Clear, calm water- perfect for swimming. We jumped down from the boat, right into the sea. Fun!

After swimming at Pileh Lagoon, they brought us to Viking Cave for so called "sightseeing". Stopped the boat there, snap some pics and after 2 minutes or so, we were on to the next stop. haha.

After that we headed to Monkey Beach. Nothing much there also, aside from monkeys and beach. Briefly stopped there and then headed to our snorkelling site- Hin Klang.

They claimed that Hin Klang is one of the "greatest coral reef in Southeast Asia". This was one of the reasons we chose this tour cos from not many tour companies make trips to this place. Oh, and before the trip I got myself an underwater casing for my S90- Dicapac Model 310. So loving it! Although I did have problem of vignetting. Other than that, the photos turned out quite clear.

Look! fishies!!

After snorkelling, we were brought to Phi Phi Natural Resort on Phi Phi Don for a buffet lunch. The restaurant was located by the beach and under shaded trees. We enjoyed our food and view to the max. Another great thing about this tour is that they don't rush us at all. We were given enough time to eat and relax... ahhh, nice~~

Our final stop was Bamboo Island. This is another place which does not have many tourists compared to other islands like Khai Island. We had about 2 hours here- to snorkel from the beach and relax on the beach.

Finished the entire tour about 4.30pm. All in all, a really nice "luxurious" and relaxing trip...

At night, we went for Phuket Fantasea show. We skipped the international buffet and just went for the show, which cost THB 1500. Quite expensive and the show was not really great but not bad either lah...

They confiscated cameras just before the show, hence limited photos in Fantasea.

Arrived back to our hotel about 11pm and headed to Bangla Road for nightlife :)

Phuket!

2010-11-17T10:34:00.007+08:00

As a reward to ourselves and keeping our promise to ourselves (to go on a nice vacation after each posting), we booked a nice trip to Phuket, just 2 weeks before. This was definitely a last minute trip considering my previous vacations were always booked like months before.

We took the first flight to Phuket- departed 6.55am and arrive at 7.20am. Which means we had a whole day in Phuket for us.

We stayed in Kelly's Hotel, a hotel which was had really good reviews on Tripadvisor. Location wise, it is a little bit far from Patong beach. Walk to the beach took about 10 minutes but one could walk through the air-conditioned Jungceylon. Walking back to the hotel was tougher though cos of the uphill slope, hence we usually took the tuk tuk back (cost about THB 200). The rooms were nice, the owner super friendly and flexible. We arrived early and yet we could easily check in before the "proper" check-in time. Our flight back to KL was at night and he let us keep the room right until 6pm (super-extended check out. hehe). Very different from the usual, "commercialised" hotels.

They also have a really nice pool, although quite small lah. Didn't had time to swim in the pool though.

It was actually raining when we arrived, which was something unusual in Phuket during November. November until December is considered the peak season in Phuket because of the (supposedly) bright and sunny weather.

Jungceylon- a nice big shopping mall. There's a bazaar and food court in the basement, and branded retail shops.

After a nice walk on Patong beach and Jungceylon in the cloudy, rainy weather, we randomly went to a tour agency booth. Our plan was to go into Phuket City for some sightseeing. The usual Phuket City Tour usually includes trip to Wat Chalong temple, cashew nut factory, pearl factory, Promthep Cape, etc etc. But we were only interested in several places and so she suggested we booked a taxi instead to go to 3 places- Karon View Point, Promthep Cape and the Phuket Weekend Market. Cost us THB 1200 for a taxi. Very worth the money, considering the taxi was a new Honda City and there was no time limit.

First stop: Karon View Point- a place to see the 3 beaches (forgot in which order though). Nothing much to do up there though- just to enjoy the cool weather and snap photos.

Second stop: Promthep Cape, which is the southern most tip of Phuket Island. The perfect romantic place to view sunset/sunrise. Unfortunate for us, the weather was still cloudy and the sun was nowhere to be seen. Can only imagine how beautiful it would be if we could see the sunset. Nonetheless, it was still a nice place to visit. We actually hiked down through slippery sandrocks and tall grasses , right to the tip. The so-called hike was definitely worth it.

No sun in sight but still could take some lovely sillhoute shots. This is are my models, with me being a "bossy" photographer. haha.

Last stop: Phuket Weekend Market! Since we were ngam ngam in Phuket on a weekend, we just had to go there. It's a local market where mostly locals go; so it's the place to try local delicacies and find cheap bargains.

So amused with these fried quail eggs. I can't believe we never thought of frying these- it's sooo cute!

Yummy mango pulut dessert... don't know what it's called in Thai though...

Another amusing find- a stall which is a bar. Mojito to-go! Only cost THB 100 for a large cup, and got to see some cool bartending skills.

Next day: Phi Phi Island Tour!

Now what?

2010-10-16T23:00:00.004+08:00

The long awaited 10/10/10 is finally over. The whole family came over and celebrated with me. Basically this trip was a mkn mkn trip for them. Having transport and 5-yrs of knowledge on good food in Kch, and being together with a Kuchingite, makes it all easier, compared to the last time they came. haha.

Anyway, felt so happy on the day of convocation. Seems like on yday or something I met my bffs and coursemates, when in fact it has been aldy 2 months. Most of them are still the same- same loudness, same craziness and it felt really good to be in such a familiar environment. Of course, what would our batch be without our chikarakachi. We've brought that from orientation in year 1 right up to graduation. Proud of us!

But now it's all over. This was the one thing we've been looking forward to for so long and now that it's over, it feels kinda depressing, Like I have nothing to forward to anymore; other than 1 year and 10 months more of HOship. *sigh* Convo was really a welcomed break from reality for each and every one of us; and now we're back to it. Wish everyone all the best then. Ganbate!

Liberating...

2010-09-23T20:55:00.003+08:00

The most liberating feeling...

Walking into Hush Puppies store, without sale, looking at those comfy shoes I've always wanted but could never afford, randomly asking to try several pairs and just buy the one liked the most...without even turning over to see the price!

Honestly, I'm a really "kedekut" and kiam sap person that I really seldom pamper myself. And this was my promise to myself when my first ever, hard-earned salary comes in- get myself an expensive, comfy shoes. Cos the shoes i bought just 2 months ago is aldy ruined.

Ruined from all the walking, the standing, the occasional running. I'm now 2 months into working life and I guess I'm aldy quite used to it, including the part of having to be on-call. But I always have to remind myself that this is an easy posting, so I should nvr slack off. Future postings are gonna be wayyy tougher... Other than that, not complaining much, especially since I've finally got my gaji aka the-money-government-hutang-me today!

One conclusion I can make from 2 months of working- HOs are the bottom of the food chain! *sigh*

First Call

2010-08-08T15:01:00.003+08:00

Here I am, after 2 weeks of tagging in Orthopaedics, this is my first day off. And yes, it's a Sunday. A day which is supposed to be a compulsory day-off for the general population, but it's a "given" day-off for us, cos for us, every day is working day. Sigh... Do I regret this path I'm taking? At times, yes. And even being in a relatively "easy" posting like Ortho, where the specialists are nice, MOs are nice, and straightforward workload and I have 3 bffs with me; I still hv my regretsof doing medicine. I can't imagine if I had started out in super tough postings. huhu. Just 2 days after off-tag, and I had my first on-call experience. At first, I was quite panicky cos of a patient in acute bed who was in septicaemia, was ventilated and on 4 inotropes to keep her alive. In the end the family decided to sign DNR and ultimately wanted to bring her home so that she can pass away there. Kinda sad cos the patient was well and just one week ago she fell into a drain, got a cut on her leg, didn't go hosp, developed necrotizing fascitis, discovered too late and ended up in septic shock. Life... sigh...The rest of the nite was surprisingly "peaceful" and I actually managed to get enough sleep. Seriously, becoming a doctor is not glamorous at all. I see juniors walkin arnd and just feel like askin them to "quit now! quit while u still can!" But then again, I see some of my collegues and seniors, those who aldy did 1 year+ housemanship- how competent and capable they are, and I just wish I could be like them. I don't like feeling so new, so incompetent, so blur... I know time is the answer but to get there seems like such a loooong time..................... Dear God, give me strength.

H.O.

2010-07-18T22:21:00.003+08:00

So, I got posted to SGH! (my first and only choice). 19 of us in total! 19!!!

First thing's first...got my induction letter, very unexpectedly i might add, just 4 days before the induction date. Our induction course was at Lisbon Hotel, Malacca. At first I was excited cos we were going to Malacca, but then took me few days to really realise that my weeks/months of becoming a complete comfortable "vegetable" at home plus several fun vacations has come to an end. THIS IS REALLY IT. The beginning of work life. A career, which has no more stops, no more long holidays, total devotion to the job. *gulp*

Anyway...........induction course was ok I guess. Conducted by KKM and BTN. Boring lectures, some cuci otak elements but on the other side, back with friends like the good ole days and 6 meals a day :) Oh and our salary is counted beginning from Day 1 of induction. 5 whole days went ok I guess, and then we all went separate ways :(

So now, just a mere 2 days after induction end, we'll be starting work tmr. I foresee a lonely future for my blog and my fb page after tmr. Oh well...all the best my comrades!

Next up: Convo! (which happens to fall on a super fantastic date of 10.10.10!)

Mon Cheri Et Moi

2010-07-04T21:18:00.002+08:00

So, finally, I went to Singapore! After, erm well, never having been there, even though it's so near. Kinda lazy to blog everything about Singapore; so in a nutshell, we basically spent 3 days for Singapore. 2 nights in Tune Hotel Danga Bay and 1 night in Mayo Inn, Singapore. Universal Studios was probably the biggest highlight and of course went to famous tourist places. Definitely need to go back to Singapore agn. Next time with tonnes of money so that I can shop to my heart desires :)

After Singapore we went up to Colmar Tropicale. We booked a room through cuti.com.my when they had a special promotion. Only after booking did we came across bad reviews on the hotel. Like really bad reviews. On tripadvisor, more than 70% of the reviews were negative comments and disappointments. About the old furniture, the incompetent staff, the dirty toilet, etc. Knowing this, we went up with really low expectation so that we won't be too disappointed.

But alas, upon arriving in KL, after having forced to spend extra money to check in luggage at Changi cos Tiger Airways was too strict and "licik" and having to wait long for the bus, I received a call from my relative, David a.k.a Mario (technically he's my uncle). Didn't know that he worked at Colmar and so he upgraded us to one-bedroom suite. Awesome!

Of course, the suite was great. I do admit that the place looks a bit rundown. For a hotel that is run by the famous Berjaya group where one would expect the standard would be much higher, this hotel is "ok ok only". From the reviews, many recommend just having a day trip up there. But I'm not really complaining also since I got a nice big suite :)

Things to do up there? Not much, but it's ok if your aim is just to go up and have a relaxing vacation. We went to the Japanese Garden and Tea house, Botanical Garden and Rabbit Park since it was included in our package. It was really nice though, to wind down, relax and have a break from all that walking and travelling in Singapore.

So now... I'm back at home, got my SPA letter and just waiting for the KKM letter to come...

Choice(s)

2010-07-04T19:33:00.000+08:00

So, actually I've aldy applied for housemanship since before the exam finished. The hospital I applied to is *drum roll* to those who don't know *drum roll* ---Sarawak General Hospital---! And believe it or not, I only put a single choice when in fact we were given 3 options. Kinda dangerous but from what I heard, west Malaysian applying for east Malaysia would definitely get it.

After much thinking, the reasons for me choosing SGH, in order of priority and importance are:

1. I'm used to the hospital

2. KL hospitals are full

3. My bf is a kuchingite and wants to work in SGH

Reasons no. 2 and 3 maybe equally true but main reason is still reason 1. Since second year, I've always thought and told ppl that reason no.3 was my main reason of choosing SGH. But after spending final year in SGH and really think about it, I chose this hospital cos 1) it's a good hospital and 2) I know the wards, most of the specialists and their tantrums, the system, the people. Also cos I don't like the intense anxiety of having to adapt to an entirely new hospital environment. Even if kss end up some place else, I would still apply there. And after The Spring, MBO Cinemas and 3 branches of Secret Recipe, Kuching has become a place that I feel quite at home too. :) I don't know where I'll be after housemanship but for now, looks like it's another 2 years in Kuching for me. If my application succeed that is.

Beautiful Bali: Tour Day 3

2010-06-03T00:24:00.000+08:00

Last day was watersports day! We went to Nusa Dua beach for watersports. Even for this the price can be bargained. We decided on the scuba diving package with snorkelling, and managed to get the whole package for 280,000 rupiah. Also did parasailing. At first it was just me and Aud who really wanted to go for it, but after seeing us doing it, everyone else was equally excited. hehe. The ride is onlt for 2 minutes (one round), but that was the best 2 minutes ever, The view from on top was breath-taking. If I had the chance, i would definitely do it again. In a heartbeat.

Also tried scuba diving for the first time. The package included snorkelling, lunch and a DVD of videos and photos. The snorkelling was a real disappointment though. Really felt like kena ripped off. The water was so murky and no fishes to see at all. But I guess the scuba diving alone was worth the package. Each of us got one instructor to bring us down to the sea bed. As they strapped me with the oxygen tank and the heavy-belt thingy, I suddenly felt the feeling of impending death. Like I could just drown and die suddenly. I guess the most important thing is to really calm yourself down and just breath through your mouth. Calm...calm.....

Made then brought us Blue Point to see the famous Glass Chapel- a famous plc for ppl to get married in Bali. We had to eat at the restaurant since the glass chapel was only open for viewing to hotel guests and restaurant patrons. So, of course, we just ordered the cheapest drink on the menu and immediately went to take pics at the chapel. And yet again, this was a hurried trip since we had to rush to Uluwatu for the kecak dance.

We managed to catch the Kecak dance just in time which usually starts at 6pm. Didn't manage to see the whole Uluwatu temple properly thought. huhu. The Kecak dance was really nice and exciting. Also a sketch, but accompanied by the big group of men singing sort of like an acapella choir. So harmonious!

After a very exciting photo-taking sessions with the kecak dancers and actors, we went to Jimbaran for seafood dinner. The price is on the higher side, but definitely worth it considering the quality of the food and the ambience. Dinner on the beach, with live music. Nice :)

So, finally after 3 full day with us crazy girls, we finished our tour with Made and ready to bid Bali bye bye. Great memories indeed :) Really hope we all can make trips like this in the future!

Beautiful Bali: Tour Day 2

2010-06-02T22:41:00.001+08:00

For the 2nd day, we started later at 9.30 am. After the previous night of talking and bonding session with Made, he found out we were typical shopping-loving girls and so suggested to bring us to Roxy and Quicksilver factory outlets. So cool right. After that we went to Megwi Royal Temple. Visitors can't go into the temple itself and can only walk around its perimeter. Was expecting to go to another temple actually- Besakih Temple which is the mother temple. But it was not in our schedule. huhu, too bad. I think that would be a nicer temple to go to.

We then went to Bali Coffee & Spices to taste the famous kopi luak. This place was slot into the schedule last minute actually. Kopi Luak is basically coffee made from the faeces of the civet cat. As explained by them- "the luak eat the best coffee beans, poops it out and we take the poop and process it into coffee". haha. Sounds disgusting I know, but apparently, it's one of the most famous and expensive coffee in the world. There was also a free testing session where we got to taste the plantation's coffee, tea and cocoa. To taste the kopi luak would require 30,000 rupiah tho; so it's one small cup for all ten of us to share.

Then it was babi guling for lunch and headed to Ulun Danu Beratan. We were particularly excited about going to this place cos it was the profile picture for our FB Event. The temple is situated on Lake Bratan. Another beautiful place, with a cool climate, in contrast to the hot humidity in Kuta.

Instead of going to the famous Bedugul Fruit Market, Made brought us to this place called Strawberry Stop.

Had delicious strawberries with ice cream and strawberry juice.

After that we went to Tanah Lot. Like Sukawati, we had to rush through Tanah Lot since we had a spa appointment at 7.30 pm. We only had 1 hour there. 1 hour at a place with so many beautiful photo spots and a huge art market and bazaar. Seems impossible right?! There were few cliffs to go to and we were almost running to get to these places just for the sake of taking pics. On the way back, we did the fastest shopping ever. Somehow I felt the dresses over here were way nicer than in Sukawati.

We managed to make it to the spa in time. Made brought us to Arum Spa & Aromatic which was located at Seminyak. 2-hour session cost 250,000 rupiah which is only about RM 100. 1 hour of Balinese full body massage and 1 hour of body scrub and bath. So relaxing... I shared a room with MC, and (worse) even shared a bath! The whole time we were screaming to each other "close your eyes ah!!, don't look ah!" since we were naked throughout the session. LOL. Of course, it was a relaxing experience...

The spa ended at 9.30 and we then had a very late dinner. As our driver puts it, "kalau mkn dulu, urut urut terkeluar nanti". lol. He dropped us at Bamboo Corner which is another mkn plc in Kuta area. Took the lobster set which was super fresh! And cost only 80,000 rupiah, which is about RM 20+. The avocado juice in Bamboo Corner also comes highly recommended by other ppl, but not me since I hate avocado :p

Beautiful Bali: Tour Day 1

2010-06-01T17:02:00.003+08:00

First of all, I must write this testimonial for our driver, Made. I got his contact through Yen Ting who highly recommended him. He has his own websites where you can choose which tour you want; but for us, we just listed down the places we wanted to go to and then he arranged an appropriate schedule for us. The first seven who went also went to Lovina with him on the day before. I've read some horror stories about drivers who talk too much and some trying to convert ppl to hinduism, but Made is so not like that. He was pretty flexible with the schedule as well; like in the last day where we suddenly wanted to go to the glass chapel and he brought us there. We wanted to eat at 2 different famous places for dinner and was preparing to choose one for convenience sake, but he's the one who suggested that we go to both places. We took up extra hours and yet he didn't charge us. Really got close to him to the point of him showing us pics of his wife and kid. haha. So yeah, of course we gave him a big tip for all his niceness.

Interested? His site is Bali Private Tours and email is wijaya7@gmail.com.

Now, on the morning of the 1st day, we went to Kuta Beach to jalan jalan before our tour began.

Made then picked us up from our hotel at 8.30 and then we headed to Batu Bulan to watch the Barong dance. The entrance fee for this dance is 80,000 rupiahs which is about RM20+. Quite expensive actually and to most, not really worth watching cos erm, well, it was boring. haha. I, on the other hand was busy squatting at the front row waiting non-stop taking pics. It's basically a sketch on a famous Hindu story.

After that we headed to Spring Temple. Everyone is required to cover up below the knees. Sarongs were given at the entrance.

There was a ceremony going on. And I noticed that Balinese are really pious Hindus. There are so many temples everywhere, and most of the time there will be some procession or some ceremony and there will be a lot of ppl in the temple.

This is the place to cleanse oneself, I think.

Next stop was Kitamani, which is on a hill. The view was absolutely beautiful. There we had buffet lunch for 80,000 rupiah++, which is very cheap for buffet. Enjoyed the food while enjoying the beautiful view :)

After a sumptuous meal, we went to Tegalalang Rice Terrace. According to Made, the paddy has been harvested just few weeks back, hence, we weren't able to see the field in full "bloom". Just stop a while for a fast photo taking session and then headed to Pasar Umum Sukawati for SHOPPING!

As can be seen, no photos whatsoever on Pasar Umum Sukawati, since the moment we reached there we immediately began looking at shops. Such a shame that we arrived there about 4.30pm, and the market usually closes by 6pm. So it was such a rush for us. The most important thing there- BARGAIN! Most of the time, the opening price can be reduced by 50-70%. So, things that I learnt on successful bargaining:

1. NEVER look interested, even though you absolutely love the dress

2. Speak in BM

3. Be persistent!!! Some use the tactic of gaining sympathy, etc

4. And if all fail- do the walkaway tactic. Walk away and just wait for them to call you back. I dare not say the percentage of success, but for me it was pretty high. :)

After hurried shopping, we went for dinner at Ubud area. There were 2 famous places that are a must-try- Dirty Duck and Naughty Nuri's. And we were very happy that Made was willing to take us to both places. The Dirty Duck place was famous for its Bebek Bengil or Crispy Duck. The restaurant was nearby a paddy field, so it would be a picturesque place for lunch as well. At night, the whole restaurant is lighted up with candles- a romantic feel indeed.

We shared Crispy Duck, since we were going to have second dinner and also since it was quite expensive. The duck was so crispy that you could chew up to the bones, Yummy....

Our second dinner was then at Naughty Nuri's where 10 ppl shared 2 plates of pork ribs. haha. But there pork ribs were really good! Juicy and tender, and the sauce that comes with it really complements it. Yummy!!!

Bali baby, Bali!

2010-06-01T16:27:00.000+08:00

Finally went to Bali! Booked the trip since last year and got it for a very cheap price. RM 171 to be exact- for the whole 5D/4N in Bali. hehe. Also thank God that all of us passed the exam, which makes 10 crazy girls going on this trip.

Veenna, Aud and I arrived at Bali one day later than the other seven. They went to Lovina for dolphin watching and to Gitgit waterfall.

We stayed at Tune Hotel, Kuta. I booked a room even before the hotel officially open and it only cost me 70cents per night! Plus taxes and all, the total stay only cost RM 53+. :). The room was quite small though, but very clean. Being "frill-free", you had to purchase extra air-cond, towels, etc. It would be boring as hell to "lepak" in the rooms, so the room was solely for sleeping purpose after a whole day of touring Bali.

My lovely bffs :)

Meet My New Baby

2010-05-22T22:40:00.009+08:00

Meet my new baby- the Canon Powershot S90. Seriously, I was dreaming and wanting this camera the whole time before Professional exam and even during it. hehe. I was looking for a camera that was compact not a DSLR (bulky and becoming a tad too common) but still could shoot DSLR-like quality. I was thinking of Canon G10/11 at first which is the only prosumer camera I know at that time (prosumer=pro+consumer! aka semi-pro), but G11 was not compact at all. Then at the PC Fair, I was introduced to S90. Went home, did extensive research (in the midst of exam stress) and after reading numerous great reviews, I immediately wanted it.

As quoted in this review,

"It's got the same spacious image sensor as the G11—1/1.7" as opposed to 1/2.5" like most point-and-shoots. But instead of being built into a Panzer tank, it's in the body of a hot German model. It's an actual point-and-shoot: It fits in the pocket of your skinny jeans, but delivers, for the most part, the same wow image quality."

and this-

"Looks like a serious little camera (it is)"

So cute right! haha, ok beginning to sound a bit too bimbo.

Ok, I'm not really doing a review here, so I won't be putting up or comparing specs (I don't know how to anyway). So now pretty much reading up on what is aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc etc and experimenting sepuasnya :).

Oh and at the time of researching I also came across this video:

So cute and keng! So, with my S90, I got myself a Gorillapod! Initially I was actually more excited about this than the camera. haha. Got it for only RM60 (online price is RM70) and in green (cos didnt have the original grey).

I put this on the dashboard and it didn't move! Well except for when making a sharp turn/U turn. Goes to show how well the rubber grip is. The "bendy" parts are also quite easy to bend and small in size.

So now... Can't wait for Bali!

It's Official!

2010-05-13T18:18:00.003+08:00

IT"S OFFICIAL! I'm a doctor!!!

The result announcement was carried out today (13th May) at the Auditorium at 11am. Seriously, that was like the most nerve-racking moment ever! Even though I'm quite confident, but still, my hands were cold, mouth was dry, palpitations and felt like puking. The tension in the air was so thick that you could slice it with a knife. Tension giler!!! The dean first announced that 3 of us didn't make it and then started announcing the names of ppl who passed one by one. Somehow thank goodness my name starts with a H, so I was relieved of the tension quite early. Compared to JH, whose name started with W, she was so pale that she looks like she gonna faint. But in the end, victory was very sweet :) And all my friends made it through :)

Thanks to God Almighty for helping me thru this and helping me get good cases with good examiners as I hope. Thanks to my dear family for support and encouragement and my friends and fellow comrades who fought this "war" together. And thanks my dear KSS (who is the Top Student of our batch and basically snatched most of the postings' best student awards *proudness*). Although it's quite stressful at times being your gf, but you really make me want to be (and really made me) a better student and a doctor. :)

CONGRATS MD UNIMAS 2005/2010! WE DID IT!!!

This feels so surreal!!!

Final Professional Exam

2010-05-12T18:07:00.003+08:00

So my clinical is finally over! Basically we can get ANY discipline possible. Ended up I got an obstructive jaundice for long case, which is a surgical case- a discipline that I really don't like and praying sooo hard not to get. But in the end, it still turned out ok. My examiners were one external examiner, who is a cardiothoracic surgeon; our own lecturer, a paediatrician and a physician from SGH. The whole experience was kinda scary. Going into the room with the patient, while praying so hard that it won't be a difficult case and then 30 minutes of discussion, which seemed sooo long. There's a "theory" that if you reach until discussion of management, you'd most probably pass already, so I guess I should be ok.

For short cases, I was lucky enough to get a nice set of examiners- a paediatrician, orthopaedic surgeon and the same nice SGH physician from my long case! Before I start, the ortho guy actually asked me "Are you Malaysian?". I nodded. Then he went, "Oh, cos your name sounds like a Filipino name". And then I so proudly and excitedly exclaimed "Yes, my race is Filipino!". hehe... I really don't know why, but everytime anyone can recognize me as a Filipino just by looking at my face or my name, I get very excited and happy (cos most ppl would just assume i'm pure chinese). So...yay :)

With a good start, I headed to my first short case, which is a medical case. Young lady, with exophthalmus. Spot diagnosis- Graves disease! I missed out a couple of steps but it was overall good. Next, the nice ortho guy brought me to a patient and already told me it would be an ortho case (i didnt know he was an ortho surgeon until then). And he asked me to examiner this patient's hand, which had clawed hands and wasting of hypothenar. Spot diagnosis- ulnar nerve palsy. And I really felt like giving him a big hug cos for every finding that I mention, he went "Good good" :) :) Then it was a paeds case. Spot diagnosis- CP! Little Samuel whom I saw in the ward during study break. That went really smooth, finished early and I came out with a smile in face :)

So this is the end of my life as a medical student. My final exam for the past 5 years. Tmr the result will be officially announced and officially I'll be done :) :) :) Really praying hard the whole batch can make it!

Closer...

2010-05-05T19:31:00.005+08:00

Theory papers and OSCE done. So far so good... Did some silly mistakes but overall still ok I guess. Now, on to the clinical part. The most IMPORTANT and DIFFICULT part, really. Fail this component and you fail overall. And seriously, ANYTHING can happen. You can get like almost ANY case from ANY discipline. Since the beginning of clinical, lecturers have always, always tell us about the senior who was a good student, lied about doing fundoscopy on a patient for this exam. Because of that one case, that one lie, the examiner insisted on him failing the whole exam. Scary rite?! Moral of the story...be honest! And of course, have to be smart and confident also lah.. Results will be out on Thursday, where our dean himself will announce out each and everyone's result. Seriously, I'm getting anticipatory anxiety just thinking about that moment. Phewh, just praying hard for clinical to go smooth. Good cases, ok examiners. Just breathe people...All the best!

This Is It

2010-05-02T15:31:00.002+08:00

Less than 24 hours to the beginning of the most important 2 weeks of our 5 years. I truly believe that it's not the past 3 weeks of revision that determines it, it's what you did for the past 5 years- a continuous learning process.

So, to all my friends, all the best! Remember- we won't merely be passing an exam, we'll be doctors :) Hope all of us can cross the finish line together.

GANBATE!!!

lalala...

2010-04-30T00:16:00.005+08:00

My post-exam shopping list/wishlist, in random order.

1. Get a nice, or even better, a new hair style at an expensive saloon. Really tempted to recolour my hair and have highlights. hmmmm.

2. New compact digital camera. Want a DSLR-like quality pictures, but not DSLR cos not compact enough. So it's either Canon G11 or S90, but as of now, I'm more leaning towards the S90 :)

3. Pretty summer dresses for Bali. Plan to get a lot more in Bali tho. yay :)

4. Shoes- still finding for the perfect peep toes and gladiator heels.

5. Chic work clothes. At least nice, decent pants since my current pants are either too small, have holes.

6. iPhone!!!!!

7. Make up- concealer, lipgloss, minerals. So tempted to get the 88 colour pallete eye shadow due to over-influence from Aud, bt I don't think I'll ever use it :P

8. Cool shades for Bali. Definitely those Jackie-O ones. hehe.

9.To-do also: Go to a studio and take nice group pics with my friends. Has been angan-anganing since we started salsa, so hope jadi!

10. Have I mention I really wanna get Canon S90??

P.S: Ok, i may seem very free and not-busy despite exam being 2 days away (cos i sempat blog and go on fb and tweet and stuff) and before going "wah this girl don't take her exam seriously ka...", i just wanna clarify that i do take my exam seriously since for the past 3 weeks, i've spent most of my waking hours in the library and hospital. and of the barely 2-3 hours i'm awake at home, going online is my only way to de-stress and preserve my sanity. so yeah....hehe........

"Interview"

2010-04-29T11:55:00.004+08:00

I wish I could blog and complain about how was my interview. Like how "garang" were my interviewers, since one is supposed to be from SPA and the other from KKM. How did I "goreng" and crap my way thru questions. How that they asked me about 1Malaysia, KKM, SPA, Rukun Negara, SGH, H1N1, Star Online, etc. which I actually read yday and could answer or if they asked me something that I really don't know and appeared like a dumb blonde.

But, I can't.

Instead, I could only tell that my interview wasn't really an interview and was really a short chit chat session, which lasted hardly 5 minutes and the whole time the smiley faced, friendly SPA guy kept assuring that I will pass the interview, since they want everyone to be "absorbed" into the system. The most "challenging" part? When he asked me to say something in BM and spell paediatrics. muahaha.

Awesome! :) So now that puts me halfway into government slavery, all I need now is to pass my exams...wooo~~

Very soon...

2010-04-27T17:41:00.002+08:00

So my Final Professional Exam will start next week. Theory paper May 3-5, and Clinical May 11-12. And results should be out abt 11am on May 13. So wait for me then. If all goes well, I'll have that very long awaited Dr. title in front of my name. :) Wish me luck!

Grey's Anatomy

2010-04-10T23:38:00.003+08:00

I love Grey's Anatomy! I'm such a fan that I know most of the details of the show. Like in Episode 16 of season 6, during this particular scene, I was equally shocked as Christina when I knew the old guy was Harper Avery. Well, in the show the Harper Avery Award is like an extremely prestigious award where Burke won before and also did Ellis Grey. But in reality, there is no such thing as a Harper Avery Award or even a famous doctor called Harper Avery. It's just the writer's niece's name or something. haha.

Anyway, I really love this scene! I was like OMG and then laughing away at Christina's reaction. Funny!

Makeup For Dummies (Like Me)

2010-03-29T23:58:00.003+08:00

Few months ago, Audrey introduced me to the wonderful world of makeup through Michelle Phan, a makeup artist who posted makeup tutorials on YouTube. The thing that I love about Michelle Phan is that she puts effort into making these "homemade" videos. Unlike many other video tutorials on youtube, hers seems like the only few with proper lighting, music background, her nice soothing voice narrating and captions so that we don't get lost. And also, she's really pretty :) (she's Vietnamese).

Her life story is even more amazing. She's quite young (only 22) and after being active posting up makeup tutorials on youtube, she slowly made her way to the top. Now she's CEO of her own skin care products company and Lancome's spokesperson. She once posted up her new apartment on twitter- gosh, it's sooo nice! I know I may come across as a bimbo for worshiping someone who's only a make up artist, but I really do admire her. She truly potrays makeup as another form of art. A face to her it's like a canvas to an artist.

Anyway, these is one of her latest videos that I love: Although I ~~seldom~~ ~~rarely~~ never wear makeup but just watching her is fun :)

how long is this going to take?!

2010-03-28T23:04:00.002+08:00

A line I've been saying over and over agn. As the term goes- "Shiok Sendiri". Go to 9:35 directly.

btw, King Julien really reminds me of my crazy friend Marcus. haha.

Anyway, I have 5 more weeks till Final Professional Exam. I don't know how I managed to go through medicine posting exam with the (little) amount of studying I did. After paeds, somehow I lost the motivation to study altogether, even for medicine- a subject that I was also interested in. I know you should learn from your mistakes, but I always feel since the traumatic paeds exam, it's like somebody died and I was in the grieving process since, yet to reach the acceptance stage. I just hope and pray I can make it through this 5 weeks with my sanity intact and some confidence to sit for finals. huhu.

"how long is this going to take??!!" LOL.

Canon in D

2010-03-19T09:37:00.002+08:00

In the midst of exam stress, I suddenly feel the need to write about my fav song of all time- Pachelbel's Canon in D. The first time I heard this song was at one of my music school's concert where a guy played it on the piano. And ever since knowing the name of the song, I became obsessed with it! I have listen to so many types of style and instruments playing this baroque- period song. (Actually if you listen carefully, Coolio's I'll See You When You Get There is based on Canon in D. Cool huh?) It's the only song I can play on the piano by heart and it's the song I wanna walk down the aisle in. This is my fav version though- tempo just nice, not too fast and I love the "background" music :)

Ok, now back to studying!

Post CNY, Pre-Finals

2010-02-22T00:32:00.002+08:00

I've been telling so many ppl, and so happily, that I have 3 months left before I finish my course. Finally. And somehow, I still don't feel panicky or anxious about the fact that I'm having the most important exam in my entire 5 years. ever. It's like I'm so numb from all the stress that I just want it to be over soon!

Oh well, let's just hope the panic, and hence the increased motivation will set in soon. This will be the longest 3 months of my entire life..............................................

Wish me luck!

Imagine

2010-02-04T15:32:00.007+08:00

This is a production of Papercranes, which is based in Sydney. I love the fact that they could think of this concept, besides having good technique and skills compared to others in the industry. Seems like making this kind of video now is very "heng"...

And yes, the answer is NO...not now, not soon... for whatever question that is or automatically pops in your head. It's just an observation. And a lifelong, since-I-was-a-young-girl obsession.

p.s: Oh, and what's great about them is that this video is a Same Day Edit (SDE). Meaning, they recorded the earlier parts first. Then on the wedding day itself, they recorded and inserted the missing parts (wedding scenes) to be shown at the reception dinner on that night itself. Which means only few hours to fast fast insert, edit, etc and make it into a complete, decent movie. keng!

Wedding!

2010-01-25T16:20:00.005+08:00

Last weekend, coincidently right after surgery exams, I went back home especially for my cousin's wedding. Had the honour of being the emcee for their reception dinner. Lazy to put pics here as I've upload tonnes of them on FB. But this post is just for me to shout out...

"I SO love being in a BIG family!"

We have like 40++ cousins and we're all so awesome, which makes our family events awesome as well! hehe. And so full of ourselves apparently. Really can't wait for the next event. Which will be CNY where we've aldy pakat to wear traditional costumes just so we can take nice big group photo :) Yay :)

Oh, and a big congratulations to my cousin Yew Mun and his lovely wife, Sze Fui. Thanks for making me part of your wedding. Wish you two all the happiness in the world and kids as cute as you to add on to the Lim clan. muahaha.

*awesome cousin pics thanks to Tyler

** Li Foong, if you're reading this... so sayang you guys couldn't be there. But don't worry, there's CNY!

Resolutions Oh Resolutions

2010-01-01T10:38:00.004+08:00

Last nite celebrated New Year's Eve at Silhouette. For a place that looks quite high-class, the price of the food is not too expensive at all. We tried their pizza, which they are famous for, and the sizzling pasta. After that, attempted to go clubbing at Pavillion. Attempted, because it was so hard to find parking. Seems like Kchites only go out clubbing on the eve of everything. Ended up in Platform, thanks to Laura. Even then, we end up just having one drink, counted down and me and Laura keep condemning Kch clubs and praising on how wonderful KL clubbing is. hehe. :p

ANYWAY, the reason for this post early this morning is for me to set some resolutions. 2010 is gonna be a really big year for us, with a hopefully triumphant end of 5 years of hard work and drastic transition to working life a.k.a hell on earth. So here it goes:

1. First of all, of course I vow to pass my final professional exam!

2. And to do the above, I will study hard as I can. No more laziness, no more procrastination.

3. My cousin, in preparation for her finals, actually abstained from FB. Thinking that would be very very impossible for me, I will try my best to kurangkan FB time. PS and CW will be on a hiatus (telling myself: I will not care abt levelling up, I will not care abt levelling up, repeat until it makes sense :p)

4. I will not purchase anymore things online. Been addicted to online shopping lately. My last purchase was on 31/12/09- black skinny jeans and a short jumpsuit. hehe. I will delete online blogshops from my favourites and no longer go on any review blogs either and unsubscribe to some blogs. I will not buy anymore things online, no matter how pretty they are, until I get my first paycheck at the end of this year!

(***On an entirely different note, I won 10% discount vouchers from grazioso and Glossy Addiction. Since I won't be needing them, whoever interested just let me know k)

5. I will kurangkan going out/ kai-kai time. except for special occassions.

6. Lessen movie time. Better still, dont watch at all during weekdays. No more downloading series. Hopefully Glee Season 2 only comes out in May. huhu.

7. I will make amends with ppl, since this is our last year together.

8. Gain weight. Eat more healthily. Pray more.

9. And after passing my professional exam, will have a successful graduation trip to Bali and more hopefully :) <--- no problem in realising this resolution. hehe.

10. Survive housemanship. Try not to have nervous breakdowns or anything alike.

11. Enjoy my first paycheck to the fullest! Buy nice christmas presents with it for everyone!

12. Not to forget that I MUST realise resolutions #1-6 to realise resolutions #8-10.

13. Be a nicer person, change the world, those usual things.

Recap 2009

2009-12-30T22:15:00.005+08:00

After reading my dear bro's blog post, I was tempted to recap my 2009 in months. But when I thought of what I did in January, and then February, and March and so on, I realised that I don't really have much special things (or even anything special) happening every month. That is how boring my life is. Study, study study, exam, exam, exam.

The only significant months would be April and May where I went to Japan for 5 weeks (I miss Japan a lot!) and June where we started learning salsa and then cha cha. (In fact, our last class was today) And of course, December cos of Christmas. Other than that, it hasn't been a great year really, especially as the end of the year approaching. Like I screwed up paeds exam and failed to get the awards I promised myself to get. Like having a breakdown in front of a doctor I'll be working with in the future. Very minor things like ordering food mistakes, fav labcoat spoilt by ink, etc etc. Like not winning contests I so hope to win. It's like everything I do abides by Murphy's Law and it has got me beaten down recently. Hence, not my usual optimistic and enthusiastic recap-year-post.

Oh well, I guess and hope 2010 will be a great year. I'll become a doctor. finally. and and this point of time, hopefully. Hoping that the diminishing luck of 2009 will expire completely and replenished fully for 2010. pls oh pls...

Christmas

2009-12-28T21:13:00.002+08:00

Had a great christmas this year with my family, and most important with kss together with my family :)

Amused

2009-12-15T18:58:00.004+08:00

Yday, I was reading this book "Surgical Recall" by Lorne H. Blackbourne...It's basically a question-and-answer book.
So then, I was reading about the biliary tree...

Question: What are the boundaries of the triangle of Calot?

Answer:

The 3 C's: 1. Cystic duct 2. Common hepatic duct, 3. Cystic artery

Then I was like hmmm, I just read my notes that the other border is the liver edge, instead of cystic artery. And then I turned to the next page...and voila!

Question: Dr. Blackbourne, are you absolutely sure that the Triangle of Calot includes the cystic artery and not the liver edge?

Answer: Yes. Look up Gastroenterology...

LOL. I really love funny authors! At least they make reading medicine a bit less boring and bearable :)

Christmas...

2009-12-13T20:35:00.002+08:00

Christmas come quick... exam stay far... please...........................................................................

My Christmas Wishlist

2009-12-04T23:26:00.010+08:00

This year, I'm gonna be shameless and post my christmas wishlist here and make everyone's life easier at the same time. As much as I love a surprise, I also do love getting things that I really want. This year, almost all of things I want are clothing items because I've been hopelessly addicted to online window shopping recently. So here it is:

1. A Long Cardigan- any colour will do :)

2. Wallet
My current wallet has pen marks all ovr it liao...Would love the long type one. Has been wanting pretty and sweet patterns or the quilted type ones.

3. Bag
Those tote handbags I can use for class and outing, similar to my current white bag. Aldy have white, would love to hv a black or brown one.

4. One of my fav's online blogshop is http://www.double-woot.com/. I love their dresses but somehow it always sell out quite fast. They're also selling these Stretchable Denim Pants which looks really nice :)

5. Maxi dress

Dont think will ever get one myself bcos I dont think I'll be brave enough to wear it casually. Would love either the floral-pattern type or just the plain, bold colour type (2nd pic.hehe). One can use to Bali, the other to my cousin's wedding!

6. A nice necklace. Just a simple one with maybe a heart or cross pendant.

7. A nice new playground for Hammie...

8. MONEY! Can't go wrong with money...hehe. Then at least I'll be able to get all the things above :)

9. Any things other than the above would be a surprise, so yay, I'll still love it. hehe.

(p.s.: am keeping reaaaally expensive stuff like a designer handbag or Blackberry under the wishlist of my graduation present. hehe.)

Lundu Retreat

2009-11-29T10:42:00.005+08:00

(this is more of a review than journal-writing)

Went out for a mini vacation with the gals during the long weekend. We went to SBEU Lundu Retreat Resort, which is about 1 hour plus drive from Kch. And I have to say, this plc is really, really nice. The entire place is quite new and very well maintained, and compared to the an older "resort" beside it (Siar Beach Resort), this place is perfect!

The resort is about another 20 mins or so from Lundu too, which makes it quite secluded. And yet, in the resort itself, it's quite happening. Even though there's no form of water sports available lah (Sarawak beaches are not cut out for it- currents are to strong).

We booked a hostel unit which can sleep up to 8 ppl. The room was nice, jus that it doesn't have an attached bathroom. Other rooms, especially the chalets looks really nice but we couldn't afford it :p The swimming pool is great; it was one of the highlights of the resort. Since the town is quite far, the resort's cafe would be our saviour. And I was surprised that their food is good. Their breakfast and dinner buffet were not too expensive and the spread is quite satisfactory. Worth the price lah for sure.

Siar beach- not the typical heavenly beach of white sands, blue sea but still ok nonetheless...

The chalets... with a beautiful garden in the middle... nice!

They have a obstacle course, beach volleyball court, netball area, swing.

The swimming pool!

The resort at night... lovely rite...

All of us~~ :)

Little Happy Things

2009-11-24T18:04:00.004+08:00

~Received the off-shoulder top I bought online last week. No idea how is the quality from the pic, but it turned out not bad at all. This is my second online buy of the month, both of which has been successful :)

~Then, checked Airasia and suddenly noticed they suddenly put an extra flight in, so the fare is only RM118, one way, (others was well above RM200) and kss is having Christmas at the Albelas. haha... :)

~Ate Maggi for dinner, and the egg I put it turned out perfect- the yolk intact and soft inside, when I "burst" it, it spread all over. yummmm... :)

woohoo~~ (even though exam's in another 2 days...)

Exams

2009-11-22T14:25:00.003+08:00

Paeds exam ended last week. Had super high expectations for it, and then it turne out to be one of my worst exam performance ever. Not only was I horrible, I also end up humilliated myself for short case...

Ortho exam is in another 3 days time and I can't recall anything from year 3...

Since first yr, I set my goals high and never strive "just to pass" my exams. But here I am, after being scarred by paeds exam, thinking the rest of final year will be battle of me just trying to pass... :(

Good Ole Cartoons

2009-10-29T18:35:00.003+08:00

For a very long time I've always had this dream... the thought...of a place. A place that is so far into my subconcious that I still remember it yet can't remember where I've seen it before.

And thanks to jh, I finally knew where I've seen the place before. It's in Care Bears the movie! A movie which was my fav childhood movie ever. And I guess I must have watched it like a million times cos when I was watching it, the scenes looked so familiar that it's scary. Like I only watched t yday or something. Even the songs started coming back to me- the tune, the lyrics. I so love this movie! Even though it's quite old, it's a classic for me :)

Rakutei

2009-10-20T23:03:00.005+08:00

So here goes about Rakutei. Since I read abt it thru blogs, so here I am hoping to provide info for those who need it. Karma. hehe. :)

So...Rakutei Japanse Restaurant. Located at Crown Square. Beside it is Ajiten an both of them are under the same company. Anyway, Ajiten serves great ramen, for Malaysian std that is.

We went for the order buffet option which is RM55 nett per person. Order buffet means they just give you the menu (which have over 100 varieties), then you just order what you want. But there is a time limit though (2 hours) and each person can only order one plate of sashimi...

...which I totally understand why cos the this plate of sahimi alone surely cost at least RM20+. There are 5 different "meat"-tuna, salmon, octopus, the other 2 dunno. It's really fresh and really nice!

There's also wide range of choices for tempura. Here we have prawn tempura...

Also grilled and fried stuff...this is Kaki Batayaki which is oyster in butter sauce. Yummy~

Temaki...aka roll...although it can be quite filling even with just one serving. There's choices of ramen and udon on the menu too...

This is some prawn stick...basically fried prawn on a stick...accidentally ordered a bit too many of this :p

Of course, sushi! Look the amount of sushi! omg, the salmon sushi is to-die-for...the texture, the taste...

Have to order expensive stuff- Unagi. Each of us had 3 pieces, which is too much also. The first bite was amazing- kinda crispy outside then the texture inside is soft and the sauce delicious. But after the third piece a bit too jelak liao...

Quite disappointedin their desserts variety though. Or should I say what variety?? cos they only have mochi, vanilla ice cream and mixed fruits. Was hoping for my matcha ice cream. huhu.

Oh, but dont underestimate this mix fruit platter though. Somehow the fruits they serve is delicious. Maybe cos we ate too much unti we need a break with fruits. hmm..We actually ordered like 3 plates each.

Overall, quite worth I guess. At least it satisfied our craving for Japanese food. hehe.

Big wall photo of the famous Shibuya crossing...

*points* we were there! sat there, drank starbucks and watch japanese ppl crossing!

Memories of Japan in Print

2009-10-17T23:12:00.004+08:00

Our elective poster is finally up! Since last week. After 4 years of looking thru senior's poster presentation of all the places they went and just dreaming and hoping one day we could go to some nice foreign country too, and then our turn finally came! We went to Japan and made a great poster out of it! Great especially since one of my team mates is really good in art and design and is also the son of a printing shop taukeh, which ultimately results in producing a vr 'keng' poster in the highest quality print, free-of-charge. hehe. Oh, and it's also more great cos that person is also my dear bf, whom I am soooo proud of. la la la.

Here it is...

On the board.... as you can see the (very good) quality of the poster. Glossy paper and high resolution print, making the pics very clear.

The Osaka gang! Beside us is the Tokyo gang (those who went to Jikei Hosp). Aldy pakat to put side by side. Japan gang unite!

The Japan gang! We all kinda colour-coordinated- Osaka wear black to match the Tokyo's poster and they wear pink to match ours. hehe.

The very next day after intense photo taking, we went for our second Japan gang reunion at Rakutei. Next post then~~ hopefully :p

Fake

2009-10-09T23:36:00.005+08:00

Welcome to my faculty... which recently just turned into a very fake, not to mention a very ugly "jungle"/"zoo"...Everything is so fake. If it's fake and nicely done nvmlah. this one..*sigh*

First of all, as you come in, where previously was the proper reception table, now lies a very fake garden...

Opposite the garden, which was supposedly Japanese-y, lies rows of fake tulips...

In the garden itself....fake ducks...

Fake fountain which dont even work...I guess the water must be fake as well...

Fake bird...

Fake Japanese design thingy with fake pebble path, fake grass, with fake, standing orchids...

Best of all...in the middle of the garden...a family of fake deers!

I have no idea in what world would this landscape be beautiful and appropriate. Well, I guess that would be in the world of ppl with absolutely no class or taste or simply don't realise that we're a medical faculty- a school producing professionals in the future- not some fake petting zoo! or something. Seriously, the money used for the very unnecessary landscaping could have been channeled to better use. Like getting us better facilities, hello?!

Seriously it's so damn fake...ya, and ugly...

Medicine

2009-10-01T17:09:00.002+08:00

I came across a jr's post on how passionate is he/she abt medicine, saying can't wait to become a dr, it's meant to be, bla bla bla. And the first thing that came to my mind was, eh kid, you have nooo idea what's ahead of you... And on another note, I feel that in the not so far future, there will definitely be kids who come into medical school cos they just love Grey's Anatomy, or they grow up watching House, or something like that. Even before stepping into the real doctor world, or maybe some surgical internship thingy, I can tell that doing medicine is not at all like in those Hollywood shows. There won't be the "excitement" potrayed in the shows- patient suddenly collapsing, call for defibrillator, charge, then defib. There won't be overly difficult cases to be solved every single day, some new exciting case every day. Instead you'll face with the same kind of cases everyday, writing and writing on discharge summaries, case notes, etc, being tired, being scolded. Passion is important in medicine but it takes a lot more than that. Like marriage, love is important but it's not the only important component. You need commitment, trust, resposibility. You need to be commited to doing medicine, which includes sacrificing time to study, go wards. You need to be responsible enough to your studies and later on to your patients. It's not just about proclaiming superficially on fb that you love medicine but about your actions. Actions that will separate those truly passionate and commited to medicine from the rest. After 4 years of studyin, as my cousin puts it, the whitecoat has lost its charm. It's not that I'm contemplating of quitting medicine, it's just that sometimes I wish this path I had wished to take would be lil bit more kind. Just a little lah. Like I could do medicine and still travel the world or something. But I guess it comes as part of the path. Oh well, the next "kid" who comes and ask me about medicine, I'll really ask them to be really prepared or else don't do it. Oh and don't be fooled by tv shows which "glamourise" medicine cos it's not. at all.

bla bla bla. ramble ramble ramble.

MBO!

2009-09-13T10:01:00.005+08:00

When I first came to Kuching, my whole family stayed at Harbour View. And then I remember at night we went to watch War Of The Worlds at Star which was just opposite of it. OMG, the horror... the place was so run-down (compared to GSC and TGV), there were so many weird and funny-looking people and what shocked me the most was the tickets! It was basically just a coupon book and then they just write your hall and seat number on it. Ugh, the horror! My bro was like thank u Lord for making me born in kl! And he seriously sounded serious. lol.

And now, after 4 years a new cinema finally arrived- MBO Cinemas, which is at The Spring. 8 cinemas, 1500 seats! Just this past weekend alone we went to there twice. Pretty impressive I have to say. We even got the membership card which have lifetime discount of RM1 per ticket and convenience of buyin from the kiosk. The place was quite grand, more of a casino feel. Seems like different cinemas have different themes also. The seats are pretty steep so the person in front of you can't block you, the seats are wide and comfortable. Definitely up to KL std :)

(sorry no photos, hope can take some when i go agn sometime this week :) )

Sometimes in the middle of the movie I'll be looking around the cinema, seeing how nice it is and in my heart how the hell is star gonna compete with this?! and then imagine a vr empty Star cineplex. hehe.

Speaking of The Spring, since it's opening 2 years ago, it's became my fav plc. I mean it's no Midvalley or One U, but still...it gives me the "feel" of KL shopping complex and hence, the feel of home. Having lived here for 4+ years now and maybe more to come, I'm actually proud of the developements of Kuching. Lesse...

- From no starbucks and only 1 pathetic coffee bean to 3 Starbucks and 2 Coffee Bean
- From run-down Saberkas and Sarawak Plaza, the-small Tun Jugah to all of those plus The Spring, Boulevard, Green Heights Mall, and a newly renovated Sarawak Plaza <-- quite proud of this in particular, dunno y..hehe
- From no Secrret Recipe to 3 Secret Recipes!
- From old airport to new, mini klia-like airport
and the list goes on...

I mean I know people don't exactly measure developement by the no. of shopping complexes, but it fits the definition in my book.

weeee~~~~~

Doe A Deer

2009-09-02T22:01:00.002+08:00

I sooo love this video that I feel obliged to post in both fb and here. Love the song, love the dance they did. Amazing stunt indeed!

Serapi

2009-09-01T21:25:00.004+08:00

We had a girls day out on National Day- to Serapi Waterfall! It's actually in Kubah National Park, which is abt 30 mins away from the our plc.

Then in Kubah, just follow the Waterfall Trail. The hike to the waterfall supposedly takes about 2 hours. But at that time we weren't counting minutes anymore. The first part of the hike was through steep tarred road, which was absolutely tiring! After that was a 1.5km hike through the jungle. The waterfall was definitely worth the very tiring hike!

The best part about the waterfall is that it flows into a small stream instead of a big pool and all. We could sit right at the bottom of the falls and enjoy the water coming down our heads. Shiok! Besides, this place is kinda secluded so that time it was just us gals over there. :)

Now awaiting for our next post-exam trip!

Squirrel!

2009-08-28T23:56:00.004+08:00

Yday we were finally done with O&G! After 10 weeks and an extremely traumatic long case experience (I almost teared up during the presentation), I can pretty much say that I dont like O&G at all! Ish, to think that I previously thought of it as a potential specialty to do. ugh! I just don't get why most of them are cranky, mean and those stuck-up ones are reaally stuck-ups. I am soo ready to move on to paeds. :)

Anyway, that's done. And so we went to celebrate our temporary moment of freedom by watching Up. I absolutely love it! Seriously, I knew it was nice but I never expected it to be that nice! The best thing is that the movie is everything- it's funny, it's sad and sweet, it's exciting. When I saw the trailer I thought Carl was just an old man, didn't know his story was so touching. Gosh, even at the early part when they showed his life with his wife and then his wife died, we were crying away. The sweetest part was when he opened his late wife's adventure book and found that his wife had put photos of their life together as her adventure. So sweet! *sob sob*

Definitely must watch! Squirrel!!!

Rest In Peace

2009-08-18T23:05:00.002+08:00

Brother Lawrence Spitzig (1918-2009)

There are certainly many individuals who have made my considerably short duration of studyin at SJI so memorable, and one of them is definitely Brother Lawrence. His devotion and dedication to the eduation system here, in SJI and other LaSalle schools have earned him Datukship just this year. He will be greatly missed indeed.

Thank you for everything...

Rest in Peace Brother Lawrence...

(Photo taken from KM)

I Wanna Graduate Now!

2009-08-15T18:10:00.005+08:00

This time of the year is seriously the "Graduation Fever" time where most unis will be having their convo. For the past many weekends, I've been seeing so many friends, from different uni graduating, all thanks to FB photo uploader. It's like from now onwards, I'm all "alone" studying- except those doin medic with me- cos most of my STPM batch mates would have aldy finished their 4-year course by now.

And I just came back from my senior's convocation and it made me more anxious to graduate and most importantly get the scroll during convocation. I know working like, esp the life of a houseman, isn't great at all, but still...I just wish "the moment" could be right now...wearing the robe, receiving the scroll, receiving teddy bears with mortar boards and big big flower bouqets, being under the hot sun while taking tonnes of crazy photos with my family and friends...throwing our grad caps!

Congratulations Seniors!!!

me with my buddy and grand buddy (Dr Jun Jun and Dr George)..Congrats!!!

Oh well, one more year to go only...must enjoy student life to the fullest! And strive to one day throw cap also..wohoo!

(photos by kss, as usual, dats y so nice, hehe)

I Heart Airasia

2009-08-12T19:33:00.004+08:00

Last nite I actually stayed up just to wait for the Airasia Big Sale promo. And at last, it was sooo worth the staying up. I actually managed to get a 5 days 4 nights trip to Bali for only RM175!!! Return ticket and hotel included! Vr lucky that Tune Hotels decided to open 2 new branches in Bali and the rooms I got was 70 cents per night (can you believe it?!), and plus all those other fees and all, the total for 4 nights stay is RM52!!! Only!

Plus, it's an all-girls trip so we're so looking forward to having crazy fun, shopping non stop, gossiping and looking pretty all the same time :) Girls, make this a motivation to pass the final prof exam k. Bali, here we come!

Thank you Airasia :) this one's for you...hehe...

Salsa!

2009-08-02T00:27:00.004+08:00

Since started in July, one of the main things I look forward to during the weekend is salsa class! The best part is the class is exclusively for 9 of us, so we're all comfortable with each other and can dance away without feeling too awkward. hehe. And we also get to wear short, flaired skirts with heels while dancing. :)

The place we're learning at is Right Steps which is situated near Titanium at Jln Song...

Our teacher told us that salsa has one of the easiest rhythm, but for me, it's difficult because a lot of twisting of the hips is needed. And having a small hip with lack of and vr cacat-ed hip-trunk coordination doesn't help either. But, so far so good though. One of the songs we dance to is the Rosalinda Ay Amour song- which I didn't realise was a salsa song back then. :)

Sorry, only pics of the place without dancers cos the dancers are shy ppl. *blush* Our teacher actually recorded us dancing altogether with her hp at one time- Sooo tempted to upload it here, but those girls will probably kill me. :p Hopefully more photos and videos when we're a bit more pro at it.

Next dance to be learned after this...Cha cha (hopefully!) or Samba... hehe.

Bride Wars

2009-08-01T01:03:00.000+08:00

Recently, I got hold of Bride Wars DVD and have watched it countless time! Naturally, watching 2 wedding-obsessed girls planning their wedding (not including the fights and all) have made me wonder about my own wedding. The one main thing I want to make things clear first is- thinking, or just talking about my wedding doesn't mean I wanna get married soon!!! Doesn't mean that I "gatal kahwin" also, doesn't mean I purposely wanna give hints or pressure to anyone! I just feel that by "thinking" about it now I can plan properly to get married at a proper time (which I feel now is probably 5 years down the road) and perhaps start saving money so that should the proper time come, money won't be an issue.

I do admit that I'm the typical girly-girl who grew up loving wedding-related movies and have aldy imagined details of my wedding. Seriously. Maybe not as obsessed as Liv and Emma in BW, but, still obsessed nonetheless. For instance, I've always imagined myself having a church wedding, and after that have an outdoor luncheon or something. Believe me, as choir member, I've had my share of church weddings and I've aldy thought about what songs to play. This have to include Pachelbel's Canon in D, if possible played by a string quartet. :)

I've also seen a wedding at Palace of The Golden Horses, where the bride arrived in an actual horse carriage! It was so romantic. Of course, it became one of my dream place BUT it would cost a bomb. *sigh*

Also, I noticed recently that the trend of wedding photography is changing to a more photojournalism style. Like instead of the usual where the couple would go to a studio and take photos in different diffent costumes (most common is Japanese and Chinese costumes- the groom usually siap with the "tocang" and the topi), now the photos have become more "artistic".

These are photos from my cousin's wedding back in 2006... Their photo shoot was taken at Lake Garden. I absolutely fell in love with the concept when I looked thru their album.

Most of their photos were vr candid which made it vr sweet since it was so natural. They would just walk around and play around while the photographer captured the vr essence of their character and relationship. hehe. So cool kan.

The movie also had a beautiful Vera Wang's gown which provoked me to go thru her designs. So pretty~~ The fact that I can go around saying I'm wearing a Vera Wang is aldy appealing to me. BUT again it will cost a lot. *double sigh*

Simple yet elegant...

Which is why, thinking or even looking thru options right now even though I would be married 5, 10 or even 15 years down the road is not a crime! Especially for ppl like me who believes wedding is THE biggest day of a girl's life. A wedding, like any other event, is basically an event. A well-planned event ends up a success, and last minute ones won't usually turn up perfect.

Either way, what harm for a girl to dream (and then saying it out loud in her blog)?

***Let me emphasize agn...I'm not getting married soon!!! I'm not giving hints!!! It's just a thought, a dream, nothing more, nothing less!!!

Weirdo's Birthday

2009-07-18T14:41:00.004+08:00

We celebrated ~~weirdo's~~ Ragnild's birthday, ten days earlier than her real birthday, at Sharing Planet. The place was quite hard to find, but it is actually quite near my house. Food was ok, although service that night was very slow. Anyway, what matters was the company :)

Happy birthday in advance weirdo!
(since i know u occassionally do read my blog, hehe)

You've only turned 22! Darn, so young! :)

So Not Final Year...

2009-07-17T17:55:00.003+08:00

I practically wasted the past 2 weeks by doing nothing. By circumstances and sadly, by choice also. first week was because of the arrival of my new laptop and then second week was because of the ban which made most of us lazy since we're not being "stimulated" by patients or sarcastic specialists who have made us hardworking for the first few weeks. On top of that, in between all of the laziness, all I can think of is bali and superstar virgo...

I'm a final year medical student! I'm supposed to be super busy and being on the brink of a nervous breakdown! Study hen study!!!!

Avatar

2009-07-12T14:13:00.005+08:00

So excited that they're goin make a movie out of Avatar, The Last Airbender! I really liked the anime series on Nickelodeon. My brothers were the ones used to be crazy over it, but then when I started watching just one episode out of boredom, I ended up watching the whole series up to Book 3!

*spoiler ahead*
I mean, it's not just the usual ordinary cartoon. It's kind of suspense and also funny at the same time, and I love the story line. Especially the idea of bending. :) Anyway, the finale of Book 3 was so awesome! He defeated the jahat Firelord without compromising his beliefs as a monk in not harming other people i.e. Avatar Aang with all his awesome powers took away the Firelord's firebending skills in an extremely superb fighting scene, which lasted 2 episodes. haha. I could nvr have thought of that ending! And the way Azula was defeated was also awesome.

I really can't wait for the movie (to be released 2010). It will be real-life somemore, really wonder how are they goin to bend water, fire, etc and how all the characters are gonna look like, especially Appa.
weeeee~~~

Damn H1N1

2009-07-08T14:04:00.005+08:00

Latest news: We're banned from both hospital AND Rainforest!!!!!! and stupid fac won't be reimbursing our tickets!!!!!! !@#$%^&#@!

At first, the news was that ALL medical students can't go hospital. Ok, fair enough. Then now our "beloved" dean tells us that we're not allowed to go Rainforest this weekend AND hospital the whole of next week. He puts the notice up just 3 days (3 days!!!) before the event and expects us to just rugi the rm90. Say it will be a "hard-learnt lesson". Seriously?!

I mean, ok, I do understand that as a medical student and a future healthcare staff, I understand I am responsible to make sure that I'm not harming others (like spreading H1N1). BUT, now the thing is that we're not even allowed to go hospital! Ban us from either one...not BOTH! And if it is unavoidable, that at least have the decency to refund our tickets!

And logically...those foreigners who will be at the Rainforest Festival will be lingering around Kuching town for the next week or so also. Which means even if we go out to a park or anywhere, we are equally at risk of getting H1N1!!! So unless you plan to ban us from going around town, then what's the use of making us waste our money and waste our final chance as final year student to go and have fun at this festival?!

No brain I tell you, no brain!

Just found out that UNIMAS medical students will be banned from SGH from this Friday until the next Sunday because of the Rainforest World Music Festival, which, will bring in tonnes of foreigners and hence high possibility of tonnes of H1N1 infections. (Staff of SGH are completely banned from going, unless they have one week left of leave to spare lah). Of course, the whole bunch of us are going, especially since they aldy forbid us ALL from going to the hospital, we might as well go and have fun rite? hehe.

But do take precautions ya- wear masks and make sure wear it properly, wash hands often and don't go near sneezing ang mohs!

10 Weeks

2009-06-26T15:40:00.005+08:00

Just one week in O&G posting and I'm completely exhausted.

For a start, I now have to wake up at 6am (6am!!) so that I can be in the hospital by 7am.

Have to check on "my patients" (which is about 9, cos maternity ward is so big) which I've clerked the day before so that can present to the specialist whenever she asks.

After that continue on with bedside teaching somemore, where have to stand for 2 straight hours, discussing case. For some, it's time to kena bomb. Time to feel stupid for not knowing answers.

Then will go back fac a while, just so to "curi" time to study and catch up on reading, makan, then have class at 2pm until 4 something.

Then have to go back hospital to clerk "my patients" again, which puts me back at home only about 6pm.

Then go back and struggle to study, make notes and prepare cases for the next day alltogether, -have to really struggle cos my eyes and head will be heavy by that time. And the cycle repeats itself.

This is roughly the life of a houseman. Plus on-calls, which = being at hospital 24 hours! Plus working on weekends! I can totally understand now why some ppl can just so easily quit at final year, waste the previous 4 years and go on to do something entirely different. *sigh* God, I hope I can make it through the next 3 years with my "life" still intact. huhu.

Zee Avi- Kantoi

2009-06-19T12:19:00.000+08:00

Cute and funny song!

Saman

2009-06-19T08:47:00.002+08:00

Found this on Sze Jia's site @ blog.sjkho.com

I never got pulled over by a traffic police and put into a situation where I would be considering of giving a bribe before *touch wood*, but I think this info would be useful. We've always thought that saman would cost hundreds so would just so willingly pay off the greedy policeman.

So next time, just smile and get the ticket and no need struggle with our conscience.

BIL	JENIS		KADAR KOMPAUN LAMA	KADAR KOMPAUN BARU
BIL	KESALAHAN	KENDERAAN	KADAR KOMPAUN LAMA	KADAR KOMPAUN BARU
1.	KEMALANGAN (TIDAK MELIBATKAN KES NC)	LORI / BAS / 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 300 RM 300 RM 300	RM 200 RM 150 RM 100
2.	PANDU LAJU	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 150 RM 150 RM 150	RM 90 RM 70 RM 50
3.	TIDAK PAKAI TALIPINGGAN KELEDAR	TEKSI VAN 4WD / KERETA	RM 150 RM 80 RM 70	RM 50 RM 50 RM 50
4.	KESALAHAN YANG TIDAK BOLEH DI KOMPAUN	SEMUA KESALAHAN TIDAK BOLEH DIKOMPAUN MENGIKUT KAEDAH-KAEDAH PENGANGKUTAN JALAN (PENGOMPAUN KESALAHAN) 2003 CTH: KEMALANGAN MAUT, MEMANDU DALAM KEADAAN MABUK, PEMANDU DI BAWAH UMUR TANPA LESEN, MEMANDU DENGAN CUAI DAN MERBAHAYA, TIADA PERLINDUNGAN INSURAN, LUMBA HARAM.	NO COMPOUND (NC)	NO COMPOUND (NC)
5.	TIDAK PAKAI TOPI KELEDAR	MOTOSIKAL	RM 70	RM 30
6.	TIDAK BOLEH BUAT PUSINGAN 'U'	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 200 RM 100 RM 70	RM 90 RM 70 RM 50
7.	POTONG CARA BAHAYA - POTONG 'Q'	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 200 RM 100 RM 70	RM 90 RM 70 RM 50
8.	MENERUSKAN PERJALANAN SEMASA ISYARAT LAMPU MERAH	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 200 RM 200 RM 150	RM 200 RM 150 RM 100
9.	MEMANDU GUNA TELEFON BIMBIT/ALAT KOMUNIKASI	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 200 RM 100 RM 70	RM 90 RM 70 RM 50
10.	TIDAK BERI LALUAN SEBELUM MEMBELOK	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 200 RM 100 RM 70	RM 90 RM 70 RM 50
11.	KESALAHAN LESEN MEMANDU	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 150 RM 80 RM 70	RM 90 RM 70 RM 30
12.	KESALAHAN LESEN KENDERAAN MOTOR (ROAD TAX)	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 150 RM 80 RM 70	RM 90 RM 70 RM 30
13.	MEMANDU DI LORONG KECEMASAN	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 200 RM 100 RM 70	RM 90 RM 70 RM 50
14.	KES WARAN	LORI/ BAS/ 4WD / TEKSI / VAN / KERETA MOTOSIKAL	RM 300 RM 300 RM 300	SEKALI GANDA DARI HARGA TAWARAN TETAPI TIDAK MELEBIHI RM 300

This Is It

2009-06-08T22:47:00.003+08:00

This is it. Final Year. The year I've been waiting for since i started studying. I'm dying to graduate as soon as possible so that I can start earning and catch up with friends who graduated long before me, and yet at the same time I don't ever want this day to come and just wanna stay a student forever, enjoying life as it is. Sigh.

Must really really ganbateh aldy...

Addicted to PS

2009-06-02T14:31:00.007+08:00

No, unfortunately it's not PlayStation, the PS all people would understand how one can get addicted to and obsessed with.

It's FB's Pet Society. When I'm not sleeping, or not in the hospital, I'm playing PS. Especially since I've known the secrets of open boxes cheat a.k.a skim cepat kaya, I've become obsessed with it. *sigh* So many ppl told me what a lame game it is, but what the heck- I'm a med student whose life consists of studying all the time and always being on the brink of a breakdown, I think I deserve to play mindless, lame games on my so very short hols :)

This is my pet- Hazel. If I do get another hamster, and it's a she, I would name her Hazel too actually.

The Japanese-inspired room. I started the obssessive playing while I was in Japan, so I would want Hazel to "experience" Japan too. haha.

Jacuzzi room...

The kitchen...

The garden. I was inspired by some PS addicts' garden where they used bookshelves to make it into fence and roof. Love items from ECO boxes too!

Princess pink room.

Last weekend, I was obsessed with opening Fairy Tale Mystery Eggs. There were 3 available doll sets- Goldilocks, Wizard of Oz and Princess- and I managed to collect all within a day of opening the eggs and refreshing the page when I didnt get what I wanted. Open and refresh, open and refresh. A million times. but..yay!

Fate

2009-05-26T23:34:00.005+08:00

This is a story of Fate between me and a guy whose name I don't even know, and referred as the Handsome Pharmacist by me and my sis. wahaha.

note: story of just fate and fate alone. jodoh. "yun fan". not the love kinda fate. hehe.

It all began in church when I was form 4. I think my sis first noticed this cute guy, who was one of those UKM students who attended our church.

At that time also I was considering to do pharmacy or medicine (dunno why so semangat to choose that time aldy). One fine day, during a mass, I was thinking and thinking when suddenly I looked in front and there he was. The cute guy. Wearing a T-shirt with "Pharmacy" printed on the back. Then my sis turned to me, che, it's a sign, you're suppose to do pharmacy! Yup, and I took it as a sign, and for 2 years I was so keen on doing pharmacy. (Until I met someone who made medicine a sign for me. wahaha) Oh, that was also when we started referring to him as the Handsome Pharmacist. Mr. HP lah k.

So, years went by and through the year, every other week or so, we could see him in church and would just look at him and admire his cute-ness. ;) We dunno his name, he dunno we exist. haha.

Then I went off to Sarawak. One fine day during my 1st year, I was walking in SGH after meeting my friend there. Then, out of the pharmacy, there he was. I haven't seen him for like over a year at that time, and yet ting! I immediately recognised him. Of course, I immediately called my sis.

Then...during my 3rd year, I was posted in Sibu Hospital for one year. And guess who I saw coming out of the pharmacy for few fine days?? Mr. HP of course! Seems that he's actually from Sibu. I still didn't know his name.

Then during one of my coursemate's open house for Lantern Festival that same year, we were just looking through the photographs on his wall. Caught a glimpse of his elder sister's class photo, who, took Pharmacy at UKM. Well well, guess whose face I managed to find in the photo?? Seems that his sister and Mr. HP were classmates.

Here it gets "creepier"... During my 2nd last posting in 3rd year (orthopaedics), we were following one of our lecturers for clinic. He was going to teach us how to examine the spine, so he just randomly picked an old uncle to come in. The uncle was Chinese and he was accompanied by a Malay lady doctor. This Malay lady doctor, or Dr. S, was a UNIMAS graduate and our lecturer recognised her. This uncle told us of his problems, then we examined him, and when Dr. S left the room, we found out that Dr. S is his son's gf, that's why she was accompaying him. Dr. S went out the room to actually call the uncle's son/ her bf. And whaddya know...the son was Mr. HP! Seriously, I was so shocked when he opened the clinic room door and came in. Of course, ideas of scandals were aldy brewing in my head- he's a Catholic and she's a Muslim, and the father weren't too happy when admitting her as his son's gf either. hmmm....

Then one fine day agn, I saw scandal before my eyes. I saw him and Dr. S together. In CHURCH. (don't forget she's a muslim) both holding the hands of a one year old boy. I only saw this once though, so don't know exactly where the boy came from.

During my 4th year, I was in community posting where we were posted to Sarikei Health Clinic. There were only a few doctors working in the small clinic and one of those doctors were none other than Dr. S. But Mr. HP wasn't there though. hehe.. Dr. S was quite a nice person and she once told my friend that she was going to a trip with her bf and family.

Then...then...one fine nite, after me and kss went for the Kenyalang Awards Ceremony in Kch, we took the night bus back to Bintangor, which is about a 6-hour journey. We arrived at Sarikei bus terminal at the most unholy hour- 3am. I was so drowsy from the journey, but when I flipped my curtain to see outside, guess who I saw sitting at the bus terminal?? Mr. HP with Dr. S with old chinese uncle!! I couldn't believe it. It was 3 in the morning, at a relatively empty bus terminal of a small town, and still I could terserempak with him.

We got down the bus, caught a look at him, nodded a bit, and of course, he didn't know who I was at all. From KL to Kch to Sibu to Sarikei. Still I don't know his name.

hehehehehe......

Babies and Stitching

2009-05-26T22:43:00.002+08:00

Yday I started my 2-week elective extension posting at Ampang Hospital in the O&G department. To pass my real O&G posting during my 5th year, I have to conduct 15 deliveries and 10 episiotomy repairs. Since SGH is famous for evil nurses and greedy student nurses, I decided to sacrifice my aldy short hols to be in a hospital. oh great.

Anyway... one thing I realised is that I find the whole process of giving birth absolutely scary. And disgusting. And squirmish. Just the way the baby's head would be out first and then be just "stuck" between the mother's thighs. Not a pretty sight at all. The way the mothers would just lie there leaving their thighs wide open and exposing their va-j-j (from grey's...hehe) to all doctors, nurses and many many curious students (like me). I can't imagine what I would feel like to be in that situation, let alone the hours and hours of labour pain.

But... as I've also come to realise, although the "journey" is bad, the "destination" is sure worth it. Once that head comes out and emerges as a baby, suddenly the whole process doesn't seem so bad after all. In fact, it becomes so beautiful. Just seeing the big relief on the mother's face and smile so happily when holding her child for the first time. Now that I can imagine and it is the one feeling I sooo definitely want to feel in the future. When I'm ready of course. :)

Then, there's the look on some of the husband's face who accompanied their wives throughout the labour. Their look when they first see their child, the way they smile, and how Muslim fathers would whisper prayers into the child's ear, is equally touching.

*sigh of happiness*

On a different note, it's aldy day 2 and I haven't conducted any delivery partly due to my scaredy-cat nature and the non go-getter in me. grrr.. Which is why from tmr onwards, I'll only be going to hospital "on-call". Lesser people, lesser competition. Just hoping I can tahan.

Culprits of My 3kg

2009-05-20T21:39:00.001+08:00

I went to Japan 45 and came back 48! Not that I'm complaining :)

Culprit #1: Buffet breakfast @ JICA
I usually eat full full for breakfast so that I can skip lunch or just eat something light for lunch and can save money. Despite not having proper lunch for most days, I still managed to gain weight, so I guess I must have eaten wayy too much of the breakfast. But as the saying goes, we should eat like a king for breakfast, like a prince for lunch and like a beggar for dinner. Or something like that. haha.

Culprit #2: Dinner set at Poppin's Kitchen

Culprit #3: Sushi set at Dotombori

Culprit #4: (Almost) daily onigiri
Onigiri is basically rice wrapped with seaweed, with a variety of filling. Usually cost about 100yen only. Cheap and filling!

Culprit #5: Shiyo Ramen at Yodobashi-Umeda

Cost about 700 yen (RM20+) for a bowl. But it was worth it, considering the portion and how tasty it is. yum yum.

Culprit #6: Okonomi-yaki
One of the most famous food in Osaka.

Culprit #7: Takoyaki at Dotombori

Osaka people are proud of their takoyaki. Truly the best in the world. They say. hehe.

Culprit #8: Kitsune Udon
This is my favourite Japanese food! Aside from being one of the cheaper Japanese food, I also like it because of the texture of the udon itself, combined with the sweetness of the kitsune (the taufoo). Usually I'll put a lot of shichimi togarashi (translated as "7 flavor chilli pepper") on it, making it more spicy and shiok.

Culprit #9: Crepe

Seems like Crepe is quite "heng" over in Japan. The display looks so nice!

Culprit #10: Nabe at Yuki's apartment

This was where we were introduced to steamboat with Miso soup. Ate so much that night.

Culprit #11: Our own nabe at JICA kitchen

Fell in love with the taste of the ready made Miso soup and so decided to have another steamboat on our own.

Culprit #12: "Some dessert cake" at the food fest in Nara
Forgot the name for it :p Although just one lil snack, but mind you, a snack is still a snack. Small frequent snacks are more "dangerous" than one big meal. huhu.

Culprit #13: Grilled squid

Culprit #14: Dango

Dango is glutinous rice balls usually on a stick. I had this one dipped in some warm syrup

(and just found out that the syrup is actually made of soy sauce, sugar and starch, suddenly feel a bit disgusted!)

Culprit #15: Strawberry parfait and pudding

This is what Japanese refer to as "sweets". There are a lot of shops specializing only in making deserts like this and each can cost as much, if not more than a proper meal. But it's sooo pretty that you wouldn't mind just ordering one just to admire it. :)

Culprit #16: Unagi Rice at Umeda

Unagi (eel) is quite expensive in Japan. Even like this lunch set, just few pieces of unagi cost about 1000yen (RM36).

Culprit #17: Teppanyaki at Ibaraki

Didn't order much though as we supposedly went in only "to try". Had vegetables, squids and the msot delicious scallops I have ever tasted.

Culprit #18: Sushi buffet at Ryugei-tei, Shinsaibashi

This is the worst culprit of all. We all ate until we literally couldn't walk out of the place. It was a promo- 1000 yen for all you can eat for the first 100 persons. The restaurant people must be regretting the moment they let the six of us in :)

...cos this was the amount of sushi we ate... mine is third stack from the left- altogether was 22 plates! kss beside me ate 30 plates! While we were stacking our plates for photography purposes, the Korean uncle beside us actually gave us a thumb up and those people in front of us were staring at our stacks in disbelief. haha.

Culprit #19: Beef rice bowl at Asakusa

Well, this wasn't my meal but it looked similar to this. Except the egg of course. Mine was cooked half-boiled. Not raw. ewww. Anyway, we managed to find this shop in Asakusa with food costing lesser than the cheapest food in Osaka (we came with and impression that Tokyo food will be so much more expensive than Osaka). Ate there on the 1st and 3rd day of our Tokyo trip.

Culprit #20: Shiyo pork ramen at Roppongi Hills

This was "ichiban" (literally means the number one) of the shop. Our last meal in Japan. Absolutely yummy, especially those 2 eggs/ Somehow the white part was just supple and nice and the yolk was a bit soft and nice. Perfect.

Culprit #21: Matcha flavoured donut cream puff at Beard Papa

I love everything matcha and green tea!

Culprit #22: Sushi set at Tsukiji Fish Market

The sushi is sooo fresh and it comes with a bowl of prawn head miso soup. Yummy.

Culprit #23: Shaka Shaka Chicken at McD Shibuya

Available only in McD Japan, it's fried chicken with seasoning (cheese, spicy or black pepper). The best part, only cost 100yen.

Culprit #24: MOS Burger at somewhere between Shibuya and Yoyogi Park

Known as Japan's Fine Burger, this was one on the list of our must-try food in Japan.

I believe that there are more culprits, but these should suffice as proof of how I could have gained weight so fast in Japan. *muahaha*

Moral of the story: Don't bother about Appeton weightgain, just go Japan. hehe.

Tokyo in 3 Days!

2009-05-19T15:44:00.012+08:00

Day 1:
Arrived at Shinjuku station at about 7am and then went straight to Guesthouse 1965. It was the place where the Jikei gang stayed for the past 5 weeks and hence we managed to stay there for quite a cheap price (about RM 70/day). After resting a while, we straightaway started our planned Tokyo trip which consisted of hopping from our famous sightseeing place to another. First stop was Asakusa- the famous street to get souvenirs.

Tokyo is really so much more different than Osaka. It is so overpopulated that every place is so crowded. After that we went to Odaiba which is a large artificial island at Tokyo bay area. Odaiba itself is o big that we dedicated one whole evening to be there. The main attractions include

Pallete Town...

Toyata showroom...

Replica of Statue of Liberty...

It's also the place where I managed to "kiap" 4 Doraemons and Sullivans. Seriously, these UFO catchers are addictive, especially once you know the trick and get the hang of it.

Day 2:

We all semangat-ly woke up at 5am just to go to the world's biggest fish market- Tsukiji Fish Market, mainly to see the fish auction. Unfortunately, as semangat as we were, we missed the auction cos it actually starts at 5am.

And it's the best place to eat sushi, well, since the sushi is the freshest it can be. According to kss nose somemore, can smell the fishy smell of fish (which means it's fresh) when entering the sushi bar. Sugoi!

After eating a vr full breakfast, we went on to Tokyo Imperial Palace Garden. We wanted to see the palace actually but since the royal family actually lives there, so it's only usually open to public on 2 particular days a year. We walked the whole garden and yet couldn't even get a glimspe of the palace. Imagine how "hidden" it is.

We took a typical Japanese antique photo...haha..

In front of the samurai house. haiyak!

Next: Shibuya. At the station, we went out the Hachiko exit to see the famous dog statue- Hachiko.

It's a terrible tale - his master had long-time passed away, but year after year, night after night, by the station Hachiko faithfully waited. Finally, when he himself died on March 8th 1935, many a heart was touched. He was given a huge send off and his body now rests in the National Science Museum.

Our first priority at Shibuya crossing was to find a high floor so that those 2 DSLR owners can take fantastic shots of people just busily walking across this famous crossing. :p And we found Starbucks :) Believe it or not, it happens to be one of the busiest Starbucks in the world.

We then walked towards Harajuku, passing through Yoyogi Park. The park is big and yet Tokyo is so overpopulated that the park felt overcrowded. Coincidently, there was Thai fair going on, which made it worse. There were SO many people, and they were sitting on the roadside, on the steps, and practically anywhere and having a picnic. Despite being crowded by so many people, I do admit I love the Japanese culture. Where there's a park and family and friends and food, there would the Japanese be, having "picnic"/ ourdoor party (like Hanami, though I don't know the exact term for it in Japanese).

Harajuku is the place to see all those weird weird Jap street fashion/ cosplay. Usually these weird weird cosplay people come out to play on Sunday afternoon, so since it was a Saturday, we couldn't see much of them

There was a crazy uncle walking around with fishbowls as his earrings.

There was even this crazy angmoh from Canada who wanted to be some actor's apprentice. So it was his publicity stunt to sit on Harajuku street every weekend or something, at certain time until his idol come to him and invite him to be his apprentice. Crazy!

After that, to Shinjuku. Went up the Tokyo Metropolitan Tower to see the night view of Tokyo.

Day 3:

I started the day with a sore throat and a bit of fever. ish. The first thing that came to my mind was how was I going to get pass the temperature screening in KLIA in this condition. I didn't want ot be quarantine!

Anyway, we went to Asakusa again. Luckily we did cos the Sanja Matsuri festival was going on at that time.

The festival is held in honor of Hinokuma Hamanari, Hinokuma Takenari and Hajino Nakatomo, the three men who established and founded Sensō-ji. Sanja Matsuri is held on the third weekend of every May at Asakusa Shrine. Its prominent parades revolve around three mikoshi (three portable shrines referenced in the festival's name), as well as traditional music and dancing. Over the course of three days, the festival attracts 1.5 to 2 million locals and tourists every year.

It is considered one of the largest and the wildest festivals in Japan. Those carrying the mikoshi were so high-spirited that it's enough to get any tourist to be high-spirited as well and follow them to chant and also "dance" with them. haha.

Then to Ginza...high class shopping street in Tokyo...

In front of Kabuki-za theater

Then to Roppongi Hills... view of Tokyo tower from Roppongi Hills.

And our final destination in the vibrant city of Tokyo is none other than the one and only Tokyo tower :)

More of Kyoto

2009-05-13T20:36:00.003+08:00

On Monday, we spontaneously made another trip to Kyoto (3rd time aldy!). We first went to Nishiki Market in hopes to eat 'yatsuhashi' for free (each shop has free samples to try and there are many many yatsuhashi shops there) and buy loads of them back home. But when we reached there, there were no such thing :( We couldn't even find shops to buy, what more to try. Maybe cos it was a weekday. hmmm...

After that, we went to Arashiyama. A place in Kyoto described as a place to see the natural beauty of Japan, away from busy cities. River, mountains, forests which make up such a wonderful scenery.

Indeed, it was beautiful. As of everything else in Kyoto. :) Here is Togetsukyo bridge.

We walked along the famous bamboo grove as well, the place where 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' was filmed.

Me enjoying the wind while watching the sunset. I only have one word- Beautiful.

Tmr will be leaving for Tokyo on a night bus and reach Shinjuku in the morning. Will be staying with those Jikei gang. So, tonite is the last nite I'll be sleeping on my soft and lovely bed. huhu.

Aldy anticipating how I would be missing Japan....*sigh*

Beautiful Kyoto

2009-05-10T21:50:00.015+08:00

The weather in Kyoto was absolutely perfect- bright and sunny, perfect for walking, perfect for photography. We took this 2nd trip to Kyoto partly because Audrey and Ragnild came down from Tokyo to spend two days in Osaka.

We bought an all day bus pass which only cost 500 yen and the city buses cover most of the famous sightseeing areas. They also give quite a comprehensive map of the bus route. Vr tourist-friendly indeed!

Anyway, our first stop was Kinkaku-ji or known as the Golden Pavilion Temple, well, simply because it's gold in colour. The entrance fee was 500yen. The thing about going temple-hopping in Kyoto is one have to be prepared to spend a lot of money just on entrance fee to these temples alone. But this is an absolute-must-see attraction of Kyoto. In fact, this is the 2nd most visited place in the whole of Japan (after Mount Fuji).

The temple was of course beautiful, but just to be admired from outside. The surroundings of the temple was beautiful as well.

This is the up close of the Golden Temple...

We tried the Japanese tradition of drinking tea (matcha). Just a cup of matcha (finely powdered, expensive green tea) with a piece of red bean cake cost 500yen, but we kinda paid for the whole experience of it.

We sat in the traditional tea room, sitting and holding our cup in the traditional way.

Matcha and the red bean cake dessert. On the cake, there's actually a vr small slice of gold piece, said to be of the similar "gold" used on the walls of the Golden Temple. The matcha was quite pure and thick, which made it a bit bitter. I, however, am absolutely crazy over everything matcha in Japan, so this cup was just nice for me.

There's also an area outside to enjoy our tea. This particular place is actually one of the famous places to have tea.

Group photo!

After that, we walked to Ryoan-ji, which a Zen Temple, famous for its Rock Garden.

Basically, it's just a garden with "raked gravel and fifteen boulders". In the brochure, it is said that the rock garden is a "living work of art" and that one should stare out at the garden and let one's imagination run wild.

Further info from wiki: Only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder.

But, frankly speaking, I couldn't get the whole Zen thingy at all.

Then we took the bus to Ginkaku-ji, or Temple of Silver Pavilion. It's a Zen temple, so there were other Zen-y rock gardens as well. Here nicer somemore I feel, hehe.

Although known as Silver Temple, the temple itself is not silver, unlike the Kinkakuji. The temple was under construction so the view of it was a bit spoilt.

Even so, the garden surrounding it made up for that. A big beautiful Zen garden. So beautiful and feel so peaceful enjoying the scenery.

This is the view from on top of a small hill. Beautiful.

And after that, got on the bus again and headed to Kyoto Imperial Palace.

A very very big area, but we couldn't actually go into the palace so what we saw was just the walls of the palace. Well, it was free. :)

Our final stop was Gion and Potoncho, the place where we wanted to see Geishas. They're usually out walking on the streets about 4pm, before going to the performing places at night. We arrived there quite late, so could only managed to see two geishas and that also rushing down the street to their performing place I suppose.

I love Kyoto!

Having a Penpal Has Its Perks!

2009-05-07T20:34:00.010+08:00

I knew Saki when we were about 13 or 14 years old. She went to our school for a homestay programme. I don't remember talking or interacting with her at that time, but I remember she just randomly gave ppl an envelope with 2 Snoopy pencils in it, and with her name card.

And I noticed that one of her hobbies were collecting stamps. At that particular time, it was mine as well. So I wrote to her, and she wrote back. We sent each other stamps and photos and friendship bracelets. Until today, I still have some of the letters from her.

But..we lost contact when I was Form 5 because she was entering university and couldn't find the time to write.

And now...thanks to the beautiful and amazing creation of FB, I found her! Just few weeks before leaving for Osaka, I typed her name in FB search box and found only one person. So I just boldly sent a msg to this person that goes something like
"hello, i used to have a penpal named Saki. was wondering r u her??"
Well, luckily, she answered with a "YES i am her!!!!" (and then perhaps spared me the humiliation of getting a sarcastic "nooooo" answer from another Saki).

She is currently working in Okayama, not too far from Osaka and her bf is from Osaka somemore, so we decided to meet up in Osaka!

She and her bf brought us to eat Unagi Rice and then belanja-ed us also. So paiseh...cos unagi is not cheap at all.

Then after lunch, they brought us to a cafe to do further catching up, and again belanja-ed us. This absolutely yummy dessert... More paiseh aldy...

This is Saki with her bf Masa. Such a typical Japanese couple- pretty stylish Jap gal with handsome and "yeng" Jap guy. oh, and such nice ppl!

After that, they brought us to Breeze Breeze shopping center and then parted as she had go back to Okayama aldy.

So nice to have a penpal kan? Thanks Saki, love you, muah! Come Msia I "belanja" you satay!

Nara

2009-05-04T20:12:00.005+08:00

Now we have an almost one week holiday, thanks to the Japanese "Golden Week". On Greenery Day, we went on a day trip to Nara. Took JR train until Tsuruhashi and change to the other line, which is cheaper and indirectly making it our next destination after Nara.

The information center at Nara station told us of the 3 main temples to go to and so we headed on to Kasuga Taisha first. There are actually free walking tour guide of Nara in English available but we still went on our own.

Nara is famous for deers and passing through the park, we saw so many deers roaming around. The deers are sooo tame and friendly!

Happily feeding the deers...

On the way to Kasuga Taisha, there were many stone lanterns along its path.

There's even a cute deer waiting to be fed between the lanterns...

Being Golden Week, whereby places for sightseeing are super crowded, Nara was of course super crowded. There were so many food stalls along the road towards Todai-ji, giving the whole place a more "meriah" feeling.

It was so difficult not to buy every single food we see in the food fair!

Todai-ji, unlike other temples we've seen, is a Buddhist temple and houses the biggest Buddha statue.

The entrance fee was quite expensive, so we decided to just take photos from outside and imagine in our minds the great Buddha statue. haha.

Deers are so many that Jap kids just have to imitate one...

The last temple we went to was Kofuku-ji.

After that, we ate at Tsuruhashi and then headed home. Tsuruhashi is known as Korean town and there were initial plans to eat "yakiniku" (bulgogi) there but fatigue and hunger ruined it for us. :p

photos by kss

Umeda Sky Building

2009-05-04T17:47:00.006+08:00

(camera still rosak, photos by kss. go to his fb for full photo album :) )

Yday we went up to Umeda Sky Building. Very unique architecture. On top, there's an open-air observatory gallery. At first we hesistated to go up since it cost 700yen. But of course we still went up, and we were up there considerably long so that it would worth the 700yen.

What we didn't know abt the gallery was the place was kinda "lovers-orientated", which then made it a romantic plc by default. There was a small mini shrine replica which is dedicated to some love god (i think). There are several very "couple-y" seats overlooking the view.

Then there's the Heart Lock. At 1000yen for a lock, lovers can engrave their name on the lock and then lock it forever on the special lumi deck on the open-air floor. Cool huh... So...it's impossible that being in such a romantic plc with the availability of such a romantic gesture that me and kss don't do something rite?

So...we made the lock...

Here is how it would be locked on the deck...(here, it's haven't been locked)...

And then after sunset, and when the sky is dark, we sat on the special lumi deck for lovers. Surrounding the decks are wires where can lock the heart. forever. at 173m above sea level, touching the sky. sooo romantic...haha...

Even the seat is special. We're suppose to hold on to a metal thing on our sides and then must hold hands so that to create kind of a circuit which will make this love shape come out!

Kobe

2009-05-02T23:37:00.018+08:00

Kobe is about 30 mins away from Osaka by the special rapid train. It's the capital of Hyogo prefecture. We took the train to Sannomiya station and made our way from there.

We visited Kitano Ijinkan, which is a historical district in Kobe and has a number of foreign residences which now are tourist attraction. Don't know exactly how many foreign houses are there but entrance to each house cost about 300-500 yen, and it cost about 2000yen, I think, for all the houses. Kinda expensive... We didn't bother going in to each house, so just jln jln along the areas and admire the houses from outside.

~ Meigo house

~ view from the balcony of Rhine house

~ the street along which has the house of Sherlock Holmes

Coincidently on that day, there was also the Kobe Infiorata at Kitano area.

"The word “infiorata” means “to deck with flowers” in Italian. This is an event that started in 1997 when people drew huge pictures with tulip petals on public squares and streets. The tulip petals are provided by farmers in Toyama and Niigata Prefectures and are picked for bulb cultivation"

~so many many tulips!

In my stay so far in Japan, I've noticed that dogs in Japan are SO cute. They don't bark, behave well, obedient, friendly and dress so cutely. Kawaii!

~ this is one of the design posters...

~ and now they're making it...

~ the one with Obama...

Another thing about Japan which made me go "kawaii!!!!" the whole time are Japanese kids. Somehow they look alike, with fat and so rosy cheeks. Kawaii!

~ more girls in kimono...

~ ring ring the bell then clap clap

We had lunch at this place... No name in English, so no idea what's the place called. Just recognise it by the logo (angry guy's face). We had our first sushi meal at this place also in Dotombori, and we ate sushi here again.

This was the promo meal we had. Sushi with cold soba, cost about 900 yen. Very worth for our standard considering the sushi itself cost about 700-800 yen. At first, we wanted to try Kobe beef but couldn't find a reasonable place and also it was so expensive!

Kobe is also famous for being a shopping district. Unfortunate for me, tak sempat go since it was a day trip.

We also went to Kobe Chinatown.

~ two sisters bergaduh...

Then we headed on to Meriken Park and towards Kobe Port area.

~ there was a flea market and food fair at Meriken Park where I bought the very cheap Japanese umbrella

~ unique hotel...

~ view of the Kobe Port Tower

Finished our day trip with a walk in Mosaic Amusement Park and Harbourland. Very pleasant trip indeed.

Universal Studios Japan

2009-04-29T21:41:00.017+08:00

We seized the opportunity of it being a weekday, and just before Golden Week start, and went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ=crowded hell on weekends and esp golden week). Even though it was a weekday, the park was still packed.

Halfway thru the parade, my Ricoh's display suddenly decided to rosak; so all of the photos here are courtesy of kss's D40. huhu.

USJ was awesome of course.

Met Betty Boop...

...Woody woodpecker's gf...no idea what's her name...

...Sesame street...the one and only cooke monster..rarrrr!

Spiderman ride...

The backdrop of the movie Backdraft...

Got to go Jurassic Park... super cool and extremely exhilirating ride. The final part is a T-rex konon nya chasing us leading to a steep drop in total darkness. It happened so fast and so unexpected and was sooo scary that I was too stunned to shout. *shudder* But I wouldn't mind doing it all ovr again of course. hehe.

There's also Snoopy land!

Our last ride for the day was Hollywood Dream Ride. A super scary, super exciting ride. The track itself made my knees weak when I saw it from the entrance.

kss's beautiful shot of the carousel...

The whole setting of USJ was great...

The Magical Starlight Parade was scheduled to start at 7pm, but by 6 there were aldy people setting "camp" on the roadside...

There was a gift shop to every ride, and so many other around the studio. So many that it would be impossible to leave USJ without a single souvenir. Theme park souvenirs are of course expensive and often overprice, that's why at first I just got choc and a key chain.

Until I saw baby cookie monster!

And his friends, baby big bird and baby elmo. So. Damn. Cute.

Later they turned off most of the lights on the studio just for the parade...Magical Starlight Parade, led by Elmo himself...

Arabian nights...

Alice in Wonderland...

And finished with Cinderella...

May All Your Wishes Come True

Rainy Kyoto

2009-04-27T19:48:00.014+08:00

I've finally found a thing I dislike about Japan- the rain. It kinda ruined our Kyoto trip. I was freezing the whole time and while going through the temples, all I could think of was putting my hands on a nice big bowl of hot udon in a nice cozy restaurant and slurping away. Despite this, I still kinda enjoyed it, just hoping it would be wayyy better for the 2nd trip.

First stop after arriving at Kyoto Station was Fushimi-Inari Shrine. Dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of cereals, Fushimi-Inari-taisha is the head shrine (taisha) for 40,000 Inari shrines across Japan. Stretching 230 meters up the hill behind it are hundreds of bright red torii (gates). The walk through the gates was nice, though at it was getting more chilly by that time.

After that, we went to Kiyomizu-dera, which is a Buddhist temple and a UNESCO Heritage Site. Not a single nail was used in this building. The temple was built on a cliff and it overlooked the beautiful city of Kyoto.

Another shrine in the vicinity is Jishu Shrine. There are a pair of love stones there, where one is suppose to walk 18m from one stone to another, with eyes closed. I tried it of course, assissted by kss, cos I would most probably to knock into so many ppl if I did it alone. haha.

~ Jishu Shrine

~ the love stone

I'm also amazed seeing some women wearing their whole kimono outfit out and just jln jln casually on the street. So cool...

~ raining raining...

Our inital plan to visit other temples were cancelled since the rain got heavier. So we headed directly back Kyoto Station.

~ the seven ramen restaurants

~ view from the skyway of Kyoto Station building. so cloudy and gloomy...

~ the beautiful architecture of Kyoto Station

Since our plan didn't turn out so well, we decided to make going on the shinkansen (bullet train)the highlight of our trip. We knew that shinkansen cost a lot, so even before coming here we were aldy thinking of taking the shortest route of shinkansen, just for the experience of it.

So, the shortest route was Kyoto to Shin-Osaka, which costs 1380 yen (~RM50+), triple the amount of the normal JR train. Yikes. But the experience is worth it I guess. It's so fast that the usual JR train time of 30 mins from Kyoto to Osaka was cut down to a mere 10 mins. The train was so fast, so quiet and so smooth.

~ we kept out tickets!

~ managed to capture part of the shinkansen's famous head. too fast liao...

Hoping for more sunny days ahead...

Umeda

2009-04-24T16:02:00.014+08:00

Yday, we decided to ~~ponteng~~ leave earlier from the afternoon surgeries and took the JR train to Umeda (JR Osaka Station). It's one of the famous shopping areas here. Didn't know what to do, so just decided to go towards a giant big red ferris wheel on a tall building.

And thus, we were led to Hankyu Entertainment Park (HEP). A super big shopping complex, with the giant big ferris wheel on its 7th floor.

The entrance fee for the ferris wheel was 500 yen for a 15 mins-ride. Not bad lah...

The view was of course fantastic. Unlike other ferris wheels which are usually on the ground, this was practically on the roof top, so could go higher and see further when reached the "peak".

~ beautiful view of Osaka City

After that, went on to lepak at the Sega amusement center. There were so many of the catcher machines thingy where you can catch toys, etc. So many cute toys, kawaii! Some can even catch food, which includes Haagen Dazs ice cream, Pringles, chocolates. Cool eh.

But I have to say, this place is eviiillll! It's practically a casino in disguise, luring vulnerable ppl like me to gamble all my money. I mean, the items themselves were sooo cute and attractive, making you feel that it's worth to gamble with your 200 yen. Ish. After being fooled once by the machine with cute Doraemon dolls, we realised that they will usually place one or two item very near, or just on the edge of the hole (where the toys are supposed to drop in), so you'll feel that it's very easy to catch. Then somehow the catcher will end up hardly even touching the item. It's a conspiracy!

~ chia preparing to tangkap two, after thinking thru a thorough strategy. he failed and evil prevailed. ish!

Anyway, I decided to try more (as said, it's an eviiilll place), this time with those scoop machines, only 100 yen. And managed to scoop up these 2 cuties! Don't know whether these two worth 100 yen anot but the success is sweet!

~ kawaii!!!!

Also ate Crepe after that. I've seen quite a lot of nice nice Crepe stalls in Osaka city area. Seems like crepe quite "heng" here.

~ beautiful display of Crepe. the display itself is mouth-watering

~ we ordered a red bean and matcha crepe. yummy!

Then, went on towards Umeda Sky Building in hope to find the okonomiyaki restaurant there. However, couldn't make it there because of the cold (it was 13 degrees, brrr...) so we ended up in Whity Umeda. At the gourmet mall (forgot the name), there was an okonomiyaki restaurant.

I've read that there are some places where can cook okonomiyaki ourselves but here, they cook for us. hehe. Okonomiyaki literally means "cook what you like" and are described as savoury pancakes. Don't exactly know what's the precise ingredients but I think it's vr similar to takoyaki. Quite expensive though (1000yen +), but a must-try since it originated from Osaka.

~ the raw ingredients

~ our handsome and vr gaya cook!

~ cooking cooking

~ almost done

~ sprinkling the aonori (green seaweed powder) and katsuo (dried bonito shavings). we finished a whole bekas of katsuo

~ the finished product!

The finished product didn't taste as spectacular as we expected it to be. Personally, tasted like takoyaki. We also made a mistake of ordering 3 different types okonomiyaki (beef, pork and mixed). They all somehow tasted the same and after two pieces, we were aldy "jelak" and was eyeing our neighbour's delicious vegetable teppanyaki.

Tmr: Kyoto!

Nabe

2009-04-20T21:47:00.007+08:00

(which is steamboat in Japanese, but it's one Hokkien word kss uses to express frustration. haha!)

Today we had another meet up with Japanese students, this time with the International Club. I was contacted by their chief, Yuki, just before the weekend and she managed to organise a welcoming dinner party for us within a day or two.

The dinner was held at the guest room in her apartment, steamboat style! Or as they call it, "Nabe". The food was absolutely delicious, and they're absolutely nice and friendly people. Felt really like an exchange student, where we got to learn about them, and they us. At one point, one of them even told us that he thinks Japanese medical education is poorer than Malaysian. Seriously? Don't know how true lah, but just found it funny that we worship them so much but actually they feel we're better than them. haha.

~ the raw ingredients- 3 different types of mushrooms, tofu, cabbage, radish

~ miso soup steamboat...yummy!

~ udon

~ after eat full full, have snacks somemore

The room we had the party in was a Japanese room, so they had like the "wardrobe" thingy (forgot what it was called in Japanese). The exact kind Doraemon used to sleep inside.

And of course, I had to try it out...

~ the Doraemon experience!

~ members of the International Club

Thanks a lot for such a wonderful nite!

Arigato gozaimasu!