31st July 05: Freaking exhausted

3 months of work and I'm dead beat. (I'm not even doing the busier postings some of my friends are). Gotta break up my leave in at least 2 chunks next posting.

Meanwhile, my post-exams photos are up! Grad photos will have to wait. Now marathon training (I'm not even sure if I'll be in shape this year to run), writing help-chemistry-is-killing-me book, work-related stuff and finger dexterity work beckons...

17th July 05: Graduation

Commencement is what NUS currently calls its graduation ceremony. Commence what? Working, I guess. We're the graduates of the centennial year. But not the 100th graduating batch. Cos technically NUS first started as a medical school in 1905, with the first batch graduating in 1910. (Not counting world war 2 disruptions)

Photos will be up by the next entry. (When I finally get off my lazy ass, upload them and back up everything). My computer is beginning to act like a petulant child, refusing to start up at times. So, it's time to learn how to assemble my own system. Then it's Linux vs Windows... I'll probably have both...

30th June 05: 40 winks

putting in 10 hour work days, 30+ hour day if on call is zombifying. Some say there's immense job satisfaction; but seriously, patients are more demanding these days. Most times, we're just carrying out orders. Some times, we're the first ones at a scene of a collapse. And once in a blue blue moon, we make a life saving decision/ diagnosis.
 
You begin to push human limits on those 30+ hours day (though that's more than a day). Suddenly student life looks better, even those pressure cooker JC days look like green pastures.
 
Working life = no sun on weekdays, letters to clear, associations to sign up with, bank accounts to set in order, insurances to buy, investments to consider. So where do you place social life? Sprinkle it in between, on leave days. (I have currently expended 3/5.5 days of leave, gotta catch up on loads.)

4th June 05: Murphy's Law

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100%
Spelling: 100%
Punctuation: 80%
Vocabulary: 60%
 
My sister made me take this...
 
 Anyway, it is always when I'm about to knock off then a patient deteriorates, or when I think I can take an early lunch break then someone collapses.

Jerry, one of the staff nurses of 75 central, is simply amazing. He will not hesitate to undress a wound for a doctor to inspect, even if he has just changed the dressing. I've never heard him grouse before. I suspect he is fuelled by the mantra: Anything for the good of the patient.

Silver spoon. It is a headache if you don't have one. I'm the eldest and my little sis is still young. Guess half a million of insurance is not unreasonable. Then all the spare cash goes to savings and investments.

Do you know how many peanuts your idle cash is earning in a typical savings account? 0.125% pa. Check out Standard Chartered's e$avers --> 1.88% pa! Catch is no ATM, no cheque book & $5 service charge per withdrawal (from bank). I'll just transfer online then.

6th May 05: 1700 hrs to 0400 hrs

This album arrived in the mail last week.

Amazon.com. I couldn't find it at HMV Heeren. Dang, my taste is getting more eclectic. Trip-hop, electronica. Fantastic chill-out music for me -- soothing, non-intrusive. The cover is way too cool.

There's another version w/o a few bonus tracks:

Finally an album where I liked > 50% of the tracks.

Back to 6th May....
1st night duty. The overflow patients were so far away from my base wards. I think I had to cover 120 odd ortho patients. 1 call every 5 mins, no wonder all seniors say that the on-call will feel like throwing away the pager/ handphone after an hour of duty.

K+ = 2.2, BP 200/90, many post-op reviews (why must they have evening surgeries that finish at MN & beyond?), sore throat, bloody diarrhea, insomnia, wheezing and many bloods to take.

I knocked on @ 0700 hrs on Thurs & off @ 1500 hrs on fri --- a more humanly 32 hrs (compared to some colleagues). Now I just need to find the section of the employment act that excludes me.

21stApr 05: Someone from the other boat.

Great, so i have the underwater pictures to show you afterall... Seems like someone from the other dive boat brought a underwater cam!

These are what I saw:

Barracuda going to school.

Sea turtle: Only saw one.

Butterfly Fish

Bat Fish: Eerie...

Giant clam: Bigger than my head!

Moray Eel: Looks like... (This thing really hides in crevices & preys on the unsuspecting)

Garoupa: Good for the table (oops..)

Which one is Nemo?

Neptune cups: Big enough to suck you in!

15thApr 05: Before I start craving for SLEEP aka. before I start work

Sorry for procrastinating with updates... Still busy helping my dive instructor, the kindly Dr. YC Lee, TRANSLATE chapter 2 of the BSAC dive manual. Yes, me still BILINGUAL.

So I'm right now a certified Ocean Diver. And Tioman is where I had my baptism of saltwater.

>> Arrival @ Tioman, our dive boat & the jetty

>> Breathless. Stop. Out of Air. Okay. Going down.

>> All ready !

>> Sunrise peeking out of Tioman hills.

Pity no underwater camera. 6 dives in one weekend *phew*. 30m wreck dive being the one I enjoyed most. Some Thai boat fishing illegally, crew repatriated, didnt want to tow boat back, so it got sunk and is now a WRECK attraction.

So end of dive, back in Singapore and the very next day, my 1,825 days of uni life got VINDICATED: I passed my finals!

2005 is 100 years of medical school as well. So we get lots of perks this year: NUS cenntenial mugs, 1st faculty to convocate, and dinner @ Istana.

And I had to try PAINTBALL before I start work. www.paintball.com.sg

>> Al-Kaheda VS UN (part 2)

>> badge of valour on my elbow *ouch!*

>> from a tiny paintball this size (flying @ 100m/s)

So next week, I get down to SERIOUS stuff: write my chemistry guidebook (which is hilariously titled, but I cant say it here cos it may get stolen), mahjong, review my insurance policies, decide if I want to do Dow Jones tracker fund,  US stock options.

Back to my 300 crunches, will write again soon (if work doesn't zombify me).

11thApr 05: Graduated

 

Back from diving @ Tioman, graduated today.

Photos up in a few days.

 

1st Apr 05: April Fool's

KM8,
new beach bar @ tanjong beach, sentosa.
Bar, music,
jacuzzi-pool, beach, sea.
Exorbitantly priced drinks, naturally.

SFF,
singapore fashion festival.
GUESS @ rouge, peranakan place.
Lots of pastel colors,
pink too.
Too many caucasian models,
where are the asian faces?
Smoky,
but not the worst I've been to.
Got high on long island,
again.

Now that mbbs is over, I should strive to:

1. stop eating buffets
2. limit to 1 alcoholic drink each time
3. continue writing my book
4. RUN