Meet the Bipolar Bear

Happy Chinese New Year

2012-02-03T16:30:00.000-08:00

I just took a nap and am still feeling tired and sleepy. Blame the number of hours I worked and the fact that I worked two man's job on Wednesday because of someone resigning. The new batch of residents are going to learn a lot because there will finally be a registrar next week, and he is a senior registrar who had passed the exam. Lucky people.

This is going to be a photo entry because I have a lot of photos in my iPhone to be offloaded to somewhere. I don't know why I took some of these pictures, but anyway at least my family can see some of my recent pictures here.

After coming home from Queen Victoria night market.

CNY's eve dinner before leaving for night shift

Steamed fish (the fastest and simplest CNY dish - 5 minutes cooking time)

Love this dress from Lipsy London

Yummy glutinuous rice. This time I did soak the rice in water for overnight, and it's a successful dish.

This was a message Kevin sent to me on one of my busy days at work:

"Today's dinner will be parsley pesto tagliatelle with cherry tomatoes and pan fried kabana. Will start serving at 21:45. Love, Kev"

Prepared by Kevin, with lots of love :)

Dinner at Shira Nui

Kevin

Sushi and sashimi, my favourite

Congratulations to Pik Lay and Wee Liem

2012-01-17T01:17:00.000-08:00

First of all, happy birthday to my newborn nephew. I wish I were there in Penang to accompany my sister when she gave birth. She did a great job!

Secondly, I want to post photos of my victorious baking history. My sisters in Malaysia bake very well, and my youngest sister in US also can bake! I decided I must bake something to keep up with their pace. Furthermore, Kevin got a food processor + mixer which he exchanged from his credit card points. That gives me a better reason to bake now!

Lamington berry roll

Not the best looking lamington roll. But it tastes great. I'm proud :D

Coriander roasted chicken

Some kind of Vietnamese/Laos dish. Very complex flavour (more than just coriander). Love this recipe and would cook it again!

So, I have a day off...

2012-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

Having a day off like this sitting in front of the computer the whole morning, is AWESOME and BLISSFUL. It's sunny day looking outside the window next to me :)

I've been busy. I didn't have the chance to celebrate Christmas or New Year. I worked on Christmas day (I wasn't paid the public holiday rate!), and I worked till late on the new year's eve. By the time I finished work, I was too tired to drag myself out for celebration. I counted down the new year with my soft toy, sitting on the couch watching fireworks on TV; and I received a warm message at midnight from Kevin who just started his night shift in the emergency department. He is so lovely.

Yesterday was a stormy shift for me in the obstetric ward. I had less than 10 minutes to review a pregnant woman presented with abdominal pain, in between two emergency caesarean cases. In the morning was antenatal clinic, and I met a pregnant girl who gave me so much headache. She is 17 years old, slim (yes, she is 33 weeks pregnant and she still looks slim), pretty, and has thick cosmetic put on her face like a doll. Before pregnancy, she used cannabis, 'ice', cigarettes and maybe more. Came along with her was the father of her baby. He is also a teenager, with the voice of Justin Bieber, and he is literally a boy. The whole scene reminded me of the film Juno.

Out of nowhere, the girl pulled out a sandwich and ate in front of me, before I saw her fasting blood slip dated 8/12/2011. She said she didn't do the blood test because her boyfriend went to Adelaide and she wasn't given a blood slip during that time???!!! (don't ask me, I don't know what has her boyfriend got to do with that, and I don't know why she lied about the blood slip too). So I asked "why are you eating the sandwich now? Are you not going to have the blood test later?" She said she was told by 'a lady at the front desk' that she had missed the fasting blood test, and didn't need it anymore *_* (maybe she should have asked me before she started eating?). Then she told me everything has been good and she had some bleeding recently (seriously?!). She didn't think she had to see a doctor because she read on the internet that 'it was normal'. And she smiled (and I felt like punching her tummy). As I pulled the curtain to examine her, she said "I think my boyfriend has the right to see this too, he is the father of the baby". So, the whole scene was like a school boy watching his science teacher dissecting a frog. Before she left, she said she didn't like her previous doctor, because the doctor said that she was naive. I agree with the doctor.

My Job

2011-12-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

It's been a while!

I AM EXHAUSTED from work...

I am rostered to work 13.5 hours most days of the week.

I face angry, screaming women everyday.

I work night shifts.

I deal with dumb women everyday.

I work under the territory of midwives.

I hate midwives.

I feel scare to assist in one of the bosses' surgeries because I can't seem to predict her next move.

I don't have a registrar.

Having said that, I learn the most from this rotation.

Tik Tok...

2011-09-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

Scary thought that I'm ageing. When I smile, couple of wrinkles appear next to my eyes. I doubt my waist size is the same anymore. Also, I have a feeling that my boobs and my facial skin are drooping.

Couples I know are getting married. Lovely people tell me to get married. Time flies and soon, I'll be 30. But I don't want to be married. The fact is it has to be done one day. Just like having kids - I don't want to have any kid, but it has to happen eventually. Because it has to happen, it better happens before the ageing process speeds up and my ovum becomes defective. Worst thought of all is I wouldn't know what sort of kids they would end up becoming. Having kids is expensive and is a huge bet, just like getting married. Thinking all these is enough to cause me sleepless nights...

The reason I'm ruminating is not because someone pops the question. But because I notice I'm getting old and I feel sad seeing my body changes and therefore I have to start planning. It's unfair seeing Kevin becoming more attractive while I'm going downhill... I've given deep thoughts and came up with some ultimate beauty plans. There's no way I can go back to 18, but at least I can try to preserve 26 and slow down the ageing :)

I'll keep the beauty plans to myself. Maybe couple of years down the track I'll tell you if they work :) And whether I'll get married, who knows?

I'm a wiser woman, more mature and confident!

Daylesford

2011-07-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

This blog is long overdue. It's about my birthday spent with Kevin in Daylesford.

Lavender farm, Daylesford

I'm not a big fan of lavender but they smell good.

Butterflies attracted to them too

There are fruit trees in the farm too

And animals...

And lake

with Kevin

This place is ideal for wedding shoot

Love the colour

That's a souvenir shop, selling lavender products

Souvenir shop

La Trattoria Cafe - sells lavender ice cream, lavender drinks, and lavender scones

Loving the lavender aroma of the scones

Lavender scones with housemade jam and cream

My risotto

Kevin's bolognaise

La Trattoria Cafe

Special accomodation arranged by Kevin

Baby is never too far from me :)

Fireplace is next to the kitchen

Our champagne and complimentary stuffs

Clever concept. Can watch TV through the see-through glass while jacuzzing. The bathroom is also fixed with stereo loudspeaker from the TV.

Must have this in my dream home

We even brought the handheld massager to Daylesford. Great relaxation away from the hospital and patients!

Daylesford Lake - just an ordinary lake

Kevin and me

Big tree!

and many ducks!

Funny duck refused to leave Kevin's car... We waited for it to leave before entering and reversing our car...

Daylesford is a peaceful town. Famous for spa, dining and massage package. Really glad that Kevin organised the trip - to get away from my daily hateful hospital routine.

Love having a quiet breakfast next to a window

Random posters or magazines

My brekky

Kevin's breakfast of 'raw' meat. He actually finished the whole thing. Impressive.

Waterfall hunting

Found it

I was looking for my shadow in the water...

Dinner at Mercato

My entree - pork belly

My fish and caviar :D

Kevin's fish - cooked to perfection

The night before we had the famous degustation menu at Lake House - a restaurant with two Chefs Hat and regarded as one of Australia's best restaurant. I took a few pictures in the dark using my iPhone, however the picture quality is not good... Thanks to Kevin once again for making my birthday such a relaxing one! :)

Paris

2011-05-16T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm officially without a car for two days. I hope my car is in a good hand to fix up the bumper. I can't wait to see my little Echo and give it a kiss tomorrow :)

This will be the finale of my Europe trip. From Nice, we stopped by a town and stayed there a night before driving to Paris the next morning.

Again, this picture has failed to rotate. This was taken at a church, now I can't remember the name of the town that we stopped by.

Escargot...

And duck breast for lunch

Our hotel, which is also a very old mansion.

The mansion is quite creepy, looks just like those scary mansions in horror movies. Hanging chandeliers, huge mirrors and weird sculptures, spiral staircase and a huge dining hall or ballroom. Looks a bit like the castle in the Beauty and the Beast. I was expecting to see ghosts that night, but fortunately the night passed uneventfully.

The creepy hotel

Exploring the mansion...

Even though the place is quite scary, I must say this is the best hotel of the entire trip. Each bedroom is different from another. We got a big room with very grand interior design. I think some part of the bathroom were gold plated as well. I felt like a princess living in a castle :)

The Lourve

The Lourve is the most visited art museum in the world.

It's one of the world's largest museum, and also a historic monument. It exhibits about 35,000 objects from prehistoric period to the 19th century. The museum is so big that it is divided into eight department including Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Islamic. It's impossible to see everything in one day, so we decided to hunt for only the world's most famous antiques in the Lourve such as the followings:

The Mona Lisa by Leornado da Vinci

It's a beautiful painting but creepy at the same time, because I notice the eyes follow me from every angle. After seeing many other oil paintings, I think the Mona Lisa has been overrated.

Nike of Samothrace - this is nice!

Venus de Milo - this is very pretty too!

Hmm whatever this is called

Nice dome...

Cute stuff :D

Huge gallery. Some of the paintings stretched across the wall, that's how big some paintings are

The Lourve and the Pyramid

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower from Champ de Mars (the green field)

Must take photo with loved ones!

You see the four visitors? Adolf Hitler once stood at where they're standing to take picture as well. Random fact.

Shimmering Eiffel Tower at night

Eiffel Tower sparkles at every hour at night. We caught the sparkles! :)

Notre Dame Cathedral

Famous for its fine French Gothic architecture, bells, organs and stained glass

Stained glass of the Notre Dame - some reason it hurts my eyes looking at it for a while.

The front entrance of Notre Dame

Many significant historical events occurred at Notre Dame Cathedral including the canonization of Joan of Arc. Perhaps to the general public, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame published in the 19th century was the most known to all.

The interior of the cathedral. The famous organ is located just below the stained glass behind me.

Interesting sculptures on the exterior wall of the cathedral

I must share this funniest photo! The old lady looks so manic and funny looking at our camera! (outside Notre Dame)

Pont des Arts
Pont des Arts is a pedestrian bridge in Paris that crosses the Seine River. It's made famous in the last episode of Sex and the City. Couples from around the world come to this bridge to pledge their love by securing padlocks to the railings and throw their keys into the river.

Pont des Arts crosses the Seine River.

Both side of railings full of padlocks. The red heart shape one stands out of all

Of course must take photo with Kevin! :)

Hmmm someone famous was imprisoned there. Now I can't remember who!

Pont Neuf

Pont Neuf is the oldest bridge standing across Seine River in Paris.

A new generation tricycle? There are quite many of them crossing the road and bridge of Paris.

Nice view of the city and Eiffel Tower from Pont Neuf

Champs-Elysees
Champs-Elysees is a prestigious avenue in Paris with luxurious shops, cafes and cinemas lining on both sides of the avenue. It is one of the most famous streets in the world!

City of fashion! Every girl's coat and boots are so different and they are all beautiful and definitely branded!

LV flagship store at Paris! where my first LV bag came from!

An Egyptian obelisk situated at Place de la Concorde, which is a public square located at the foot of Champs-Elysees. Place de la Concorde is famous for guillotine where some of the most famous executed figures were King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.

These two are young Gypsies trying to cheat tourists' money by asking for donation on behalf of some charity organizations. See them everywhere in Paris especially at Place de la Concorde. Feel like chopping their heads off.

Arc de Triomphe

Shop till drop along the Champs-Elysees and towards the Western end of the avenue is the Arc de Triomphe. This monument honours those who fought for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars. It also serves as a roundabout (see picture above) - it's the most dangerous and busiest roundabout I've ever seen where cars just appear out of no where because there are too many exits and entrance for the roundabout!

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is another arch to commemorate Napoleon's military's victories. It's situated next to the Lourve.

Les Invalides

Les Invalides is the military museum and also the burial site for some war heroes such as Napoleon Bonaparte

Chapel of Saint-Louis at Les Invalides

Food and miscellaneous

Outdoor ice-skating

French onion soup - the best food I had in Paris

More escargot

Duck breast with French fries?

Come to Paris must see Moulin Rouge!

******The End ******

A Quarter Life Crisis

2011-05-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

I’m feeling the exhaustion from work and from consistently comparing my job to others. You should stop reading here if you don’t want to hear my complaints.

Being a doctor involves a lot of physical and mental strength. So much to do and so many people to please including the bosses, nurses, patients and patients’ family, not to mention the Greek and Italian families who are the most demanding group of all, sometimes you just feel like slapping them on the face. I’m serious.

Working with people with sour face as if you owe them money doesn’t help at all. This happened more in the interaction between ED doctors with other specialty doctors. Traditionally, EVERY OTHER DOCTOR HATES EMERGENCY DOCTORS (I bring up this issue because I’m currently doing ED). Other specialty thinks ED are useless and only work as triage and they even equivalent ED doctor to a nurse, which is absolute disrespect. They tend to forget that ED doctors save life, unless they come to resuscitation bay to watch what ED doctors doing. All they see is ED increases their workload by disposing patients to under their care, which is very narrow minded thinking. Don’t even talk about disposing complex patients to them because they only like to accept simple patient with single medical issue, which I think is very irresponsible of these doctors. I as currently working in the ED, get very frustrated with Medical Registrars who refuse admission without even seeing the patient and wants ED to speak to so-and-so specialty for admission. This is unacceptable because in every case I make thorough assessment and conclude that the patient is most suitable for Medical admission and medical treatment (3/3 of my patients refused admission by the Medical Registrar ended up as medical admission anyway, so I don’t see how my assessment is different from theirs). So the Medical Registrar should at least come to see the patient then decide rather than telling ED speak to other specialty for admission. Sometime I feel like yelling at them that ED doctors are not their secretary! Some of these doctors can be so rude that they verbally challenge the ED Consultant in very unfriendly way.

Long working hour is common in medicine but not bad at all with comparison to doctors working in Malaysia. However, comparing with other careers (by this I mean those 9-5 working hour office job), doctors’ workload is much heavier and less time for personal lifestyle. Sometimes I don’t even get lunch break and depends on what job I’m doing, I may not go home on time. It just gets worse at the Registrar level especially surgical doctors. To give you an idea, an Orthopaedic Registrar I know of despite knowing he’s not going to be paid overtime, he worked 18 hours continuously and slept in the hospital because no point going home four hours before starting work again in the next morning. Every time I see couple or family enjoying their slow pace of life, I wonder whether I’ve chosen the wrong career. When I see non-medical friends posting photos of their weekly activity on Facebook with lots of smiley faces, I wonder when is my turn to have fun every week too? That includes basic activity like shopping that every girl loves to do including me!

I’m getting tired of these, not just physically but everything about working as a doctor. I’m losing my passion and I even have the thought of quitting medicine. I consulted two of my closest Registrars who told me that every doctor goes through this phase. One of them told me that he took one year off before deciding to come back as a doctor. I hope this is just a phase that will pass by quickly and I certainly hope that I regain that passion once more.

Nice

2011-05-04T23:21:00.000-07:00

Nice is a city located on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the second most visited city in France after Paris. It has beautiful seaside and alps in the far background and together its Mediterranean climate are what attract most visitors today.

A picturesque city

No sand, just stones and rocks. But still, this place is beautiful!

the "beach" of Nice

The harbour of Nice

Nice is quite a nice city to walk and see :) There's not much historical stuff but quite a lot of cultural things to see and buy here. There is a market near the beach that sells antiques be it furniture, clothing, sunglasses, jewellery, vase, painting, posters or even LV, you will find what you want.

"Antique" market

A whole stretch of street selling interesting aged stuffs. If you are antique collector, you'll like this place

Posters

Nice's old town

Florist

Fragrance

Oysters. I still prefer Bairnsdale's oysters: big, juicy and fresh

the backstreet

Place Massena, the major square of the city

The best pancake!

No joking, the pancake I had in Nice is better than Pancake Parlour. It's huge and crispy outside, with lots of Nutella chocolate wrapped inside :D But I had it in the midst of cigarette smokes ewwww because almost everyone in the French cafe smoked!

More photos of the beach

So beautiful!

With Kevin!

Monaco

2011-05-03T04:33:00.000-07:00

This Europe blog is taking forever. And I am emo today :(

I just want to sleep through the day and hope that tomorrow never comes. No particular reason, I just feel like it.

I'm going to post photos of Monaco. Hopefully it will make me feel better!

Port of Monaco facing the Mediterranean Sea

Monaco is the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican City. It is surrounded by France on three sides and the other side facing the Mediterranean Sea. Despite being independent, its national defence is the responsibility of France. What's famous in Monaco? Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo Casino and rich people! Monaco is a tax haven for rich people because there is no personal income tax in Monaco and therefore has attracted numerous famous rich people to attempt citizenship in this country.

"Hair pin" of the Grand Prix

Monte Carlo Casino. Outside are all luxurious sports cars

Feel rich even standing there haha

Palace of Monaco

Saint Nicholas Cathedral, the burial site of Prince Rainier III and his wife the actress Grace Kelly

Dinner at a restaurant near the Palace

Duck liver pate (the photo refuses to flip!)

with Kevin at Monte Carlo

Okay that's it for now. I'm still emo. Going to sleep, hope I feel better soon!

Pisa

2011-05-01T02:04:00.001-07:00

I'm going to be very quick with this post because I need to de-bone my chicken soon :P

By the way, I notice Windows Live Writer doesn't allow my readers to click or enlarge my blog photos. So I'm going to ditch this program and go back to my ancient way of blogging i.e. Blogger webpage via the internet. You should be able to click on my blog photos starting from this post :)

Still in Italy, here's the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa:

Piazza del Duomo (the leaning tower is hiding on far right)

Our tour guide thinks the Leaning Tower of Pisa is not as interesting and the publicity has been overrated. I think he is just getting bored of bringing tourists to see the same thing every trip... The Leaning Tower of Pisa is really quite interesting to watch :) Therefore, must take lots of pictures!!!

Not too slanted from this angle...

The classic pose

kissing the tower!

We have another photo together with cheeky pose but unfortunately it was of poor quality... I would have shared it with you if it was good because it was hilarious I was kicking the tower and Kevin with horrified look on his face!

Florence

2011-04-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

I’m getting impatient writing my Europe trip. It seems never ending! I could have written something else then come back to write about Europe encounter, but I thought Florence is too beautiful to be shared later. So, here we go:

String of photos with minimal description (again) as below:

Magnificent view of Florence city

Florence is my favourite city after Lucerne, Switzerland! Peaceful and beautiful!

Another reason I’m so in love with Florence is because of my favourite anime, Kiki’s Delivery Service. Don’t you think the anime’s setting looks like Florence city??

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Kiki’s was the first anime my dad bought for us five sisters to watch at home. I love the story and animation and I always wish to travel to where Kiki lived. It’s a place full of magic, peace and kind people – an ideal place to live, don’t you think? I’m sure I’ve watched the show for many many times and I’m not tired of it! Just few weeks ago, Kevin found the DVD version of Kiki’s and we watched together! I’m so happy that he likes my favourite anime too!

Share the love!

Can’t stop showing you my happy face

Mini version of China Great Wall haha

See the brown dome in the middle? It’s the Duomo!

The famous Duomo!

Again, you don’t know how much I’ve always wanted to see Duomo! It’s the Florence Cathedral that appears in my favourite HK movie, Marry a Rich Man (嫁個有錢人) starred by Sammi Cheng and Richie Ren in 2002. I’ve probably watched the movie more than ten times too

Must take loads of picture with Duomo!

Take 1:

Take 2:

Take 3:

Marry a nice rich man!

Kevin and me in front of facade of the cathedral

The interior of Duomo

You’ll find variety of souvenir shops in the backstreets of Florence

Florence not only famous for good quality leather, also gold/silver as well! This photo shows a whole street of goldsmiths!

Santa Croce – a Roman Catholic church also the burial site of famous Italian figures including Michelangelo and Galileo, thus also known as the Temple of the Italian Glories.

Random facts of Florence:

1. Florence is the birthplace of Renaissance – no wonder the whole Florence is like a beautiful painting

2. The birth of Renaissance was inspired and fostered by the Medici family

3. Notable residents of Florence include: Michelangelo, Leornado da Vinci, Giovanni, Raphael, Galileo, Florence Nightingale, Gucci…

Uffizi Gallery

Due to the flourish of Renaissance period, a number of famous galleries are located in Florence to display the work of art of many notable Renaissance artists. Unfortunately Kevin and I only visited one gallery due to time constraint. We went to Accademia Gallery that houses a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo named “David”. You can google it but I don’t think any photo will do it justice. The sculpture of David was unbelievably surreal and anatomically so correct! Kevin and I were studying David’s veins and muscles in the gallery, believe it or not

The replica of David

No photo is allowed inside Accademia Gallery. I can only show you the replica of David standing in front of Palazzo Vecchio (This was indeed the original location of Michelangelo’s David before it was moved to Accademia Gallery and the location was then replaced by a replica)

Me and David (the replica)

That’s Neptune again

Palazzo Vecchio – town hall of Florence

Tuscan dinner, entree

Tuscan steak

With Kevin at the Tuscan dinner organised by Contiki

Fundraising for Tsunami Victims

2011-03-30T04:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to travel to Japan since long time ago. My aim really is to see Mount Fuji, bathe in hotspring and eat lots of quality sashimi/sushi and ramen. Kevin and I have been preparing the tour for quite some time and were about to buy airline ticket right before we were struck by the news of 8.9 Richter disastrous earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

I first noticed the news probably at about midnight and was in the middle of doing night shift. I couldn’t believe in the first place because the first news I got came from FACEBOOK. Shortly after more reliable news came from BBC and CNN. The first thing that came to me was we’re not going to Japan anymore. I also thought about my few friends in Japan – later on it was a relief to see them coming online on Facebook again, really.

The amount of damage is unspeakable. The aerial view of the morning after was shocking. The number of people who died and families that were separated when shown on TV brought so much grief to the viewers. The amount of psychological and physical breakdown that these survivors went through were paramount, and them being alive is simply unbelievable.

I would like to help the earthquake survivors but I wasn’t sure how. Then I realise I’m pretty good at blogging and people DO read my blog and I shall spread the following fund raising event to all of you. Bear in mind, I’m not the best blogger but at least some companies invited me to blog advertisements in the past (which I refused).

What is the event?

“Heart For Japan” – a fund raising bicycle ride organised by Junior Chamber International (JCI) in Malaysia. The bicycle ride spans 930km starting from Singapore to Bukit Kayu Hitam and will take place over twelve days duration.

Who’s riding the bike?

Wee Loon Ong, a very nice guy He is from Kedah, studied Medicine and works in Melbourne. He’s birthday is 8th of October lol I remember! If you want to know more about him, add him on Facebook la. I just feel awkward have to ‘promote’ my good friend in my blog. To be honest, I’m very proud of him willing to spend his entire annual leave riding bicycle under the hot sun surrounded by so many dangerous drivers in Malaysia, I’m serious. Apparently there will also be other cyclists accompanying him at couple of spots, other than that he’s the main cyclist of this event.

How can you donate?

Donate with LOVE and KIND HEART. Forward your donation to any of the following accounts throughout these twelve days period when Wee Loon is still cycling! i.e from 29th March to 9th April:

JCI Alor Star (CIMB: 0217 0002 8870 58)

JCI JBE (Public Bank Berhad: 3135 296 730)

p/s: 100% of the fund will be donated to tsunami victims in Japan. Two days ago I asked Wee Loon which account to transfer money to if I’m doing it from overseas, he told me either one will be fine . I know this is dumb question, but I asked because I was confused by them writing “JCI Alor Star” and “JCI JBE”, so I wondered what about Australia? Haha.

If you want to read more about this event, see this if you’re a Facebooker or this if you read Chinese news.

Okay folks, talk to you guys later! Night shifts starting again tomorrow… Remember to donate

Vatican City

2011-03-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

St. Peter’s Square and the obelisk. Not in the photo but is behind our camera is the famous St. Peter’s Basilica (will show you later). This is it -- the Vatican City.

The politic of Vatican City is so confusing. All I understand is the Pope is the head of the Vatican i.e. also the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. If you read up more, they talk about Vatican City vs Holy See and it’s pretty argumentative. Don’t start the topic.

The Pope’s sculpture. The most representative figure of the whole Roman Catholic Church.

Speaking of Catholic, there’s one thing I have to say (taking the risk of being stoned to death but I remain the right to speak because THIS is my blog it is my TERRITORY and you’re probably unwelcomely stepping on it) –>

DEAR CATHOLIC MAN, PLEASE USE CONDOM.

Birth control, dude!

Getting your wife pregnant every year just doesn’t sound normal. It’s almost equivalent to sexual abuse! Don’t tell me over the last 15 years you bore 12 kids because your dream was to build a big family and it got nothing to do with your sexual urge. Shit me. And ladies, if you’re not ready for another pregnancy, say NO. Tell your beloved hubby go masturbate and take his own responsibility to go to hell.

Swiss Guards – personal bodyguards of the Pope.

Outside this wall is the city of Rome. Once you step inside, you’re in the Vatican’s territory.

St. Peter’s Basilica and the obelisk behind us

St. Peter’s Basilica is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. In Catholic tradition, it is the burial site of St. Peter, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to tradition, St. Peter’s tomb is directly below the altar of the basilica.

Sculpture of St. Peter

The altar

? the tomb – not accessible by public

Have no idea what this is. Must be something famous too

St. Peter’s Basilica is majestically huge

The basilica’s dome

Me inside St. Peter’s Basilica

One of the many Renaissance paintings

“Pieta” by Michelangelo is one of the most famous artwork in the Vatican City

Vatican Museum

Vatican Museum is home to some of the most famous arts in the world, including those of Michelangelo, Bernini, Raphael etc. Together with Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, it probably houses more valuable pieces of Renaissance artwork than the Lourve in Paris (in fact, I think Lourve is overrated).

Hallway of maps and paintings inside the Vatican Museum

I wouldn’t have remembered the painter. Too many paintings!

3D ceiling painting

Look at the number of paintings and the crowd!

An honour to witness so many great Renaissance paintings

So many years ago and such delicate artwork

It is forbidden to take picture inside Sistine Chapel. The wall and ceiling of the chapel is completely covered by breathtaking paintings. The most unbelievable painting is The Last Judgement by Michelangelo that spans the entire wall behind the altar of Sistine Chapel. The Last Judgement contains the most numbered nude human figures I’ve ever seen! And Michelangelo even included his self-portrait amongst the many painted figures – not as human but humbly as a slayed skin held by St. Bartholomew. The painting is so majestic it instils fear in the viewers and depicts the power of God Almighty. If you enjoy Renaissance art, you must come to see The Last Judgement in Sistine Chapel.

Another section of the Vatican Museum. Probably ‘stolen’ marbles from Egypt

The scariest and darkest stairway in the Vatican Museum

Feel better when I’m outside. The honorary Vatican City.

St. Peter Basilica at night. You’ll regret not taking photo of the night scene.

Rome

2011-03-28T04:18:00.000-07:00

It’s been quite some time since I travelled to Rome. Now that I have to blog about Rome, I don’t remember much . We took so many photos in Rome, unfortunately I don’t know what they are now; I’m sure all the buildings and sculptures have names and probably are very famous too, but I can’t seem to recall.

For example, THIS GUY:

He looked famous. He’s somewhere in the town centre. He could be Julius Caesar? Maybe not. Oh well, I’ll try my best to come up with captions for the rest of the photos. I apologise to my readers… And by the way, the Romans left too many historical sculptures like this on the streets and to me, they all look like the Julius Caesar!

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country’s most populated city. It’s so crowded you might hate it. The traffic is horrible. Almost every car has at least a dentation from trying to squeeze through the traffic or even attempting a ridiculously small parking spot. They literally bump the car in front and back to squeeze their car into parking. Traffic rules probably don’t exist anymore in the heart of Roman drivers…

Most cars in Rome are hatchback and small for convenience…

Rome is a salad mix of modern city built amongst 2500 years of historical rubbles.

There’re too many historical remains and you can easily walk past one along a major city road.

A chapel maybe?

Ancient Roman’s five-storey market built thousands years ago. Imagine butchers and farmers selling their goods inside there…

Capitoline Wolf

This is a famous symbolic of Rome seen everywhere: Capitoline Wolf suckles the twins named Romulus and Remus. The legend of Rome came from the story of Romulus killing his twin brother Remus, after an argument to build a city – then named Rome.

Trevi Fountain – was the terminal point of one of the ancient aquaducts that supplied water to the ancient Rome. It’s named Trevi because it marks the junction of three roads at the terminal point.

Neptune at Trevi Fountain!

Coin throwing at Trevi Fountain has various interpretation, I hope they’re all good!

So many visitors come to throw money everyday!

Or you can enjoy the best gelato while watching people throwing money

Look at the variety of gelato! Chocolate is my favourite!

Trevi Fountain at night

Pantheon – a temple for all the gods of Ancient Rome. Rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in 126 AD.

Pantheon dome is the first perfect dome built in human history and became the catalyst for architectural dome design in the world, including the one at St. Peter’s Basilica.

Tomb of the great artist, Raphael was cremated here as well.

The altar of the Pantheon

If you don’t know what this is, go ‘long piak’ (i.e. hit your head onto a wall)

Inside the Oh Mighty Colosseum!

Can’t imagine how much blood was shed here. And the crowd cheering from their seats when a gladiator got killed. You need imagination and historical instinct when you come to Rome especially the Colosseum. Watch some Gladiator and 300 before coming in!

I feel strong even standing there!

And tall! OK, maybe not!

I found the first Losec (Omeprazole)! Colosseum should ask for copyright haha.

Random Roman I don’t understand.

Ahhh what a lovely day to visit the Colosseum

Kevin is here!

Arch of Constantine outside the Colosseum

Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum

Dr Cheng!

This field is for ancient chariot racing. Behind the field was where rich Romans lived and behind that would be the Colosseum. Crazy rich Romans enjoyed watching people killed…

Rome was once a rich and strong empire…

Now they are under my feet muahahaha

Roman Forum! I read so much of this in History book, now I finally see it (the remains is enough to touch my heart). FYI my dream was to become an archaeologist before I somehow ended up becoming a doctor.

Support democracy. Not the Malaysian one, please.

Ancient Romans were strong. They carried/wheeled big blocks! The Romans now are gay.

By the way, Ancient Romans stole many things from other empires. They thought they were so great and could bully anyone during their time. You’ll be amazed by the ‘things’ they stole for example:

Solare – an Egyptian obelisk at the Piazza de Montecitorio

Can you believe that Rome has the most obelisks in the world, not Egypt? Partly because Rome ‘stole’/ transported eight Egyptian obelisks to Rome. At least three of them were built by the Ramses II ! There are also five Ancient Roman obelisks in Rome plus a number of modern obelisks. I wonder is obelisk a symbol of power?

Agonalis – Ancient Roman obelisk at Piazza Navona

I can’t remember this thing. It’s something famous.

Scala Sancta or Jesus Steps – the steps that Jesus Christ stood during His Passion in the Jerusalem. It was brought to Rome in the 4th Century.

Basilica of St. Mary in Cosmedin – where the Mouth of Truth is located. The queue was long we didn’t go in.

Ancient Romans if told lie would be brought to the Mouth of Truth. There’s a ‘chopper’ behind the Mouth of Truth (a bearded man sculpture with hollow mouth). The accused had to place his/her hand through the hollow mouth and answered the question. If the ‘chopper’ thought the accused was lying, he would chop off the hand. It was that primitive…sad right?

Spanish Steps. This is where magazines come looking for pretty models.

The Monument of Victor Emmanuel II

Best pizza ever! Come Italy must eat pizza!

Entree

Pastas

Venice

2011-03-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I'm becoming a walking zombie in preparation for my night shifts. I've been training myself to be awake at night and sleep in the morning, but I think my plan is not working --- I accidentally fall asleep again and again in the middle of the night... Last night I chatted with my nieces and I kept yawning. So, the four-year-old girl asked me a few times 'Ah Yi very sleepy ar?' I said 'yes, can Ah Yi say good bye now?'...The girl said 'No good bye, I want to talk'. She's so influential and managed to keep me awake through the most difficult time i.e. midnight! At 5am I couldn't help but lay in my comfy bed accidentally Zzzz. I forced myself to wake up at 9:30am, made a pot of mihunke. So I am now a walking zombie who just ate mihunke and is now writing a blog which is probably not going to make much sense...

Long story short, We went to Italy this time: Venice, Rome and Florence. There're too many photos so this entry is going to be just VENICE.

Cappucino - love it or hate it

I'm sure a lot of people are going to disagree with me: Italian coffee sucks. Dad says must try Italian expresso (he's such a coffee lover). So I had a sip of short black (and cappucino) in Italy and swear I'm not going to have coffee in Italy again. I was so overwhelmed by the bitterness and plainness of Italian coffee... Kevin says it's the coffeee scent that people love; I must say it's also the strong coffee scent that makes me nauseous! Also, a kind reminder to all coffee lovers out there, please do something to your breath after gulping a cup of coffee e.g. drink a lot of water/ brush your teeth/ gargle Listerine / chew some fresh mint or stop breathing completely. Having said that, I still love Malaysian kopitiam style coffee i.e. iced coffee sweetened with condensed milk! :)

Ferry ride to Venice

With Kevin :)

"The Floating City"

St Mark's Campanile (bell tower) from far. I'm sure you've seen similar ones in Las Vegas and Macau but this is the real Campanile

I think dad's taken photo with this building many years ago... Nice but don't know what it is.

Strolling through one of Europe's most romantic cities :)

I'm in Venice not Macau. Doge's Palace (a gothic palace)

how come all the buildings so nice??

St Mark's Basilica, which is connected to the Doge's Palace on the right

Close-up of me and St Mark's Basilica

You'll get sick of me after this blog...

St Mark's Square with Campanile in the background

The other side of St Mark's Square full of pigeons

Photo with pigeons is a must when you come to St Mark's Square.

I can understand Venice is famous for gondola ride because it's a City of Canals. However Venice is also famous for these things I don't know why: Venetian lace, Venetian glass and Venetian masks.

Less than a minute a vase is made!

Another photo of the same master blowing through a tube into hot glass that shapes like a penis, which later being moulded into the vase above. The photo is kind of obscene I won't show you in my clean blog.

These are fake Venetian masks in the market. Real ones are damn expensive don't know why...

Shopping streets

The shopping alleys can be very crowded in Venice, so beware of pick pockets which are literally everywhere in Venice. The shops are not located orderly and I don't think there is street sign as well. Don't be afraid to get lost in the shopping alleys because you'll get to see variety of interesting shops and somehow you'll find your way out again.

Floating shops or houses

The main transport in Venice is gondola. It's not easy to guide a gondola and people have to go to college to study becoming a gondolier! It's such a unique profession and some of the locals have been gondoliers their entire life...

On an gondola ride. Not all gondoliers wear stripes and hat and sing!

Every gondola has its own deco. Ours has roses :) p/s see how many gondolas in front of us?! Such a crowded canal..

Some part of the canal looks deserted and scary; also got mold on the wall and rubbish floating on stinky water. So not the whole Venice is romantic.

Gondola service - Venetians ride gondola to and from work everyday! Water taxi indeed...

The Grand Canal - this is what people come to see in Venice!

Me and the Grand Canal

That's the bridge where we took our Grand Canal photos - just in time before the sun set!

After whole day of walking, we finally sat down for a delicious pasta feast.

Entree. No photo of pasta sorry we were too hungry and busy eating. We were served ~six different pastas and I was so carb overloaded that night. One thing to comment about Italian pasta: it's dry i.e. not much sauce or gravy but quite nice.

Liechtenstein and Innsbruck

2011-03-13T05:05:00.000-07:00

First of all, happy birthday to my niece! Not as if the little girl reads my blog. I just want to announce my excitement to every reader :) She is a cute, clever and good girl. I so wanted to post her picture but am too lazy to look from my messy photo album... Anyhow, she's adorable lah...

Also, I will be starting night shift on Thursday. Am trying hard to switch my sleep cycle now :(

As usual, following is going to be a bunch of photos with minimal description if any...

Liechtenstein

View outside the coach

Liechtenstein is a very small country surrounded by snowy mountains in the winter. The country is so small it doesn't have army. If Liechtenstein were to be invaded, Switzerland by law is to send military assistance to Liechtenstein. It's also a country of principality from the original Liechtenstein Dynasty since 1140 freaking long years.

Vaduz Castle overlooking the capital remains home to the Prince of Liechtenstein

On the way to 'visit' the Prince! :P

Fell on a slippery slope...that's my falling trail

Finally arriving at the castle ")

I'm this close to the Prince...only if he's at 'home'. So close you could even touch the castle's wall

Castle overlooking the capital! What a boring life the Prince looks at his people everyday!

Liechtenstein is famous for stamps. Seriously, the stamp collection was quite beautiful and huge variety...

Innsbruck, Austria

Must visit Swarovski when come to Austria. Apparently the Swarovski crystals are cheaper in Austria, I don't know. Kevin got me a pair of necklaces and earrings...love them! Thanking him.

Garden in winter, looks like the scene in Narnia

I enjoy walking on the snow

See the alpine behind? So beautiful!

Everything is nice when it snows :)

Lucerne, Switzerland

2011-03-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

What comes to your mind when I say Switzerland? :)

Swiss Alps?

Chocolates?

Notice it's not English? Gosh, this original Lindt tastes so much better. It's chocolaty and salty, I like!

Watches?

Swiss flags?

Swiss flag and the flag of the Vatican are the only square national flags

Swiss army knife?

No photo. It's a multipurpose short knife men like to carry in their pocket. Google if you still don't know.

Or lots of fun in the snow!

Okay, a bit of spill about Switzerland before more photos!

Switzerland has always maintained its neutrality in any international wars, so not much history to tell you. It's such a peaceful, beautiful and wealthy country, many rich people like to live here and become their citizens. Not to mention, the Swiss economy is very stable too. When the economy in the rest of the world plummeted, Swiss's economy and currency still stayed strong.

Land and air forces are major defences because Switzerland is a landlocked country and has no navy. The army are always in the state of ready-for-action and they keep military equipment and personal weapons at home ready to fight anytime. Don't be surprise to see soldiers patrolling on the streets or in the alps watching you snowboarding. They are very organised and quite paranoid at the same time...

Okay, photos all the way!

Some kind of factory puffing white fumes at the back

Mt Pilatus cable car station

That's our cable car coming

The snow on pine trees gets thicker as the altitude becomes higher

Seriously first time playing with snow so exciting

I know you made snow ball before, I don't care I want to show you mine!

Snow hiking takes so much time and effort!

....especially walking on very thick snow tracks

and most of the hikers are oldies!!!

So pretty!

Throwing snow on the ground

Throwing snow on the bench

Throwing snow everywhere!!!

Whatever this is...I had so much fun!

Kevin in action!

too dangerous to climb this...

I am this happy!

It's us again! before descending...

The ground scenery is beautiful as well!

Whatever this bridge is, so nice covering by snow

Day vs night

The other side of bridge

The bridge

Walking across the bridge

Backside up lol

Bus station or something in the city centre...

I vote Lucerne the most beautiful city!

Whether I want to live in Lucerne? Probably not. It's beautiful and peaceful, but too quiet! I can carry one million dollars in my pocket walking safely around Lucerne, but I can't do much here. Shopping centres probably sell watches and Swiss army knives and nothing else. Beautiful place to visit but probably not to stay long term, I'll get bored. Speaking of watches, Kevin and I each bought a watch for ourselves. Mine is for everyday use, so pretty it's filled with attitude. It's called Black Floral by Swatch. Mr Kevin invests in classic Tissot mechanical watch, which is also a gift for himself to celebrate the completion of internhip. Congrats to me and him!

Lion Monument. Frozen lake just two steps behind me...

Upon completion of work, the artist of the Lion Monument was told there was not enough money raised to pay for his service; to make a public statement about his disdain for the situation, he changed the shape of the outside edge into the shape of a pig which remains until this day. Can you see the pig shape?

The Lion Monument of Lucerne is to commemorate more than 700 Swiss Guards who were massacred during French Revolution

Posing with a random city wall

Cheese fondue. So cheesy you'll get sick of it after some time

Main and dessert

Kevin and me having cheese fondue

That's all about Switzerland....Chiao ~

St Goar in Germany

2011-02-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

Remember the green patch of grass in the previous entry? You're not going to see anymore of that in a while; because we're moving towards South and it's winter!

Snow patch - R&R in Germany. Had a taste of German sausage and favourite mushroom risotto there. Even R&R sells delicious food!

Germans are very proud of their cuckoo clocks, of course because the first cuckoo clock was made in Black Forest. You must visit cuckoo clock centre when you come to Germany. You'll be amazed by the authenticity and variety of cuckoo clocks in the shop. No two are the same. Because of such, even a small cuckoo clock of the size of palm can worth hundreds of Euro!

Cuckoo Clock Centre at St Goar

No photo allowed in the shop

Another must-see is beer stein or bierstein in German. Beer stein is a stoneware sometimes comes with pewter lid; main function is to keep beer's temperature as Germany can be very cold during the winter.

These are special edition of beer steins to celebrate the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989. Very intricate drawing or carving to record this important historical moment... Also a fragment of original Berlin Wall sitting on top of the lid. How mesmerizing!

Following the torn down of Berlin Wall, fragments of wall were taken or sold all around the world even on ebay. It's the original fragment that has graffiti and guaranteed by certificate of authenticity gives high value to the beer stein. Apparently the first collection of such beer stein in 1990 has increased in value by 1000 Euros after these 10 years. After hearing this, Kevin and I decided to buy one :p The Berlin Wall beer stein is now sitting over our fireplace and it comes with a certificate of authenticity as well :)

Left: posing with my sunflower overnight bag; Right: cute telephone box

St Goar is a very quiet town. The arrival of Contiki crew probably doubled their population in one night :p We stayed in a very homey hotel where there's no TV, but only a Bible in the room... The hotel is so old it has narrow spiral staircases that fit only one person at a time. Packing an overnight bag was definitely a good idea to climb up the staircases. I must say the hotel German dinner was not superb but the Black Forest cherry cake was a blast!!! So fluffy it melts in your mouth and the traditional kirschwasser (liquor distilled from tart cherries) and rum inside the cake is pure heaven! I will never forget the taste it felt so good! Gosh, I finally ate traditional German Black Forest cherry cake or it's spelled Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in German.

Walking in the town; Right: being an intruder in front of someone's home. Just thought the two pots of flowers are pretty.

The view in front of hotel

Can you spot a castle on the hill?

So romantic...

Germany has many castles. You can see them erected on top of hills while driving along the highway. Nowdays, rich people buy castles to live there or renovate the castle to become hotel for tourists.

A castle hotel on the hill

Another castle on the hill across the river

The night is so dark and castle's glowing on the hill

Wine tasting - not my favourite activity tasting alcohols in the storage underground. There's mold on the wall and smelly fluid on the ground. Ewwww...

Amsterdam

2011-02-27T19:16:00.000-08:00

I am extremely exhausted after working 13.5 hours shift yesterday. I covered the following surgical units: Orthopaedic, Vascular, Plastics, Cardiothoracic, ENT and Maxillofacial until 9:30pm. This hospital is virtually overflow with surgical patients that some patients had to be admitted into the medical ward, which was terrible because some medical nurses are simply incompetent of looking after surgical patients and therefore can't stop paging the doctor. They literally abuse the paging system, which is something doctors hate.

Must be a doctor who changed the Lanpage icon to "annoy a doctor". There's even a better one on the ward "don't you dare"

When I arrived home, poor Kevin was still waiting to take me out for dinner :( We ended up getting something from McDonalds and know what, we both had sugar rush from having too much Coke and couldn't sleep...It's really bad because my muscles sore but my brain was awake. As I'm writing this, my eye bags popping and dark circles appearing...

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There's so much to write about my trip. This is the 2nd country I'm blogging (out of 10). I might clump a few countries into one entry if possible :) However not this one. Netherlands is too special to be shared...

Amsterdam, Netherlands

The tour started in London, then across the English Channel to France. However strictly speaking we visited France last, as we were only transiting France to arrive in Netherlands on the first day.

From Britain, we took a ferry to the Continental Europe. The ferry departed from the White Cliffs of Dover and took 1.5 hours to cross the English Channel before reaching the continent.

Port of Dover, White Cliffs as the background

White Cliffs is named of its striking white appearance of the chalk composition. The cliffs form part of the British coastline facing France across the English Channel. This photo was taken not long after the ferry left the port.

Me on the ferry

Vehicles parked in the ferry's basement whilst being transported across.

After unboarding the ferry, we drove to Netherlands via France and Belgium.

First taste of sweetness after waking up from anti-motion sickness pill. Some kind of chocolate hazelnut ice-cream or whatever, possibly at the R&R of Belgium - can't recall much my brain is still zzzz

Traditional windmill, iconic of Netherlands. If you see one along the highway, get a photo as you won't see it anymore once you leave the highway into the hustle and bustle of city life. Kevin managed to capture this while the bus was speeding on highway...

People talk about Red Light District when they come to Amsterdam. To be honest with you, it's a beautiful place (especially at night) despite some unsightly "scenes" i.e. prostitution and drugs. Will tell you more about prostitution and drugs shortly :)

Nice :)

Me + random bike. This photo reminds me to show you the next photo!

A war zone of bicycle. I wonder how the owners recognise their bikes...

Bicycle is a major mode of transport in Netherlands because the country consists mainly of flat ground, which is perfect for bike riding. They ride bicycle to everywhere, and sometimes along the highway too. Bicycles are such a big thing here that all pedestrians MUST give way to cyclists. Don't be surprise if your pedestrian's light turns green and you see the coming bicycles still not slowing down. The cyclists may even ring their bell as if to tell the pedestrians 'get out of my way, pedestrian bitch'...Gee, how much I hate cyclists in Amsterdam!

All bicycles in Amsterdam are old style i.e. those traditional ah-mah style bicycle with high seat + a basket hanging on the front/behind.

Random cyclist. Very amusing looking at these people riding bike all day

Must show you this as well:

Their taxis are Mercedez!!! How cool is that? Mercedez in Europe is like Proton in Malaysia except zillion times better

Back to night photos:

Wow, beautiful isn't it? River + boats + lighted building. This is part of the Red Light District too

There're many multistorey housing/business buildings in Amsterdam. That's because housing price is very much dependent on the surface area regardless of the floor number.

Now let me tell you about the other side of Red Light District. As you may have aware, prostitution is legalised in this country. The prostitutes are considered a formal profession here. They even pay taxes just like every other profession. Each lady owns a small room that has a big "window", exactly like the window in the photo above. She wears as little as she can, usually some kind of fancy bra and panty so small they can't possibly fit everything. She presents herself inside the big window and does whatever she could possibly think of to attract street customers.

As you walk through, semi-naked ladies standing on your left and right inside their windows. Fat/slim/white/black whatever all in the Red Light District. By the way, these ladies are protected so no photo of "window" is allowed - beware of policemen patrolling outside.

Prostitution is so common here it's part of life...Within the Red Light District, there's surprisingly a church standing tall and a kindergarden as well...weird huh sending their children to kindergarden seeing all these men zipping their pants while walking out of the windows just across the street.

One of the live sex show theatres. It says what it does inside, if you still don't get it I don't know what more to say...

Red Light District is also a place of drug and alcohol

You see people smoking pots or weeds or whatever here. "Coffee Shop" means it sells pot/weed inside. You see many of shops with sign of "Coffee Shop" hanging on the outside, that means you can buy drugs here.

Go in and get high...

You can smell people puffing weeds everywhere on the street. Horrible smell I want to puke!

Grasshopper: high class Coffee Shop

Enough of prostitutes, drugs and alcohol. More pretty photos coming up:

Oh so nice!

In the morning :)

Brown building is Amsterdam Central Station

Everyone's waiting to take picture of this! We got our chance :)

Without the previous picture, you wouldn't understand what I'm trying to tell you here...

:)

Kevin!

Left: outside Anne Frank House; the top two floors were the "Secret Annexe"; Right: view across the Anne Frank House. P/s: I'm still reading the diary, currently reading the March 1944 entry, almost there...

Van Gough Museum

Funny enough, we had South American food as lunch. Very delicious also recommended in Lonely Planet. Thumbs up! :)

Cheese stall in the market that looks like pasar malam, except cleaner

Cheese making demonstration. I didn't understand a single word from her...even though she spoke English...

Cheese tasting...

Sweet wine

Clog making demonstration; Right: so many wooden clogs!!

me and unpainted wooden clogs

Space ship giant clog

I like taking photo with big patch of green grass

Am very happy with our purchase from Netherlands:
- The Diary of a Young Girl from Anne Frank House
- Sunflower bag from Van Gough Museum; absolutely stunning and am using it as overnight bag
- Cute wooden clogs
- Absolutely adorable teddy bear keychain that says I love Amsterdam
- Zara + H&M

London

2011-02-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

Kevin and I visited 10 countries in the Western Europe within 17 days. Tiring? Yes! Fun? Of course!

The 10 countries that we travelled (18/01/11-04/02/11): *drum roll*

United Kingdom
Netherlands
Germany
Austria
Liechtenstein
Switzerland
Italy
Vatican City
Monaco
France

Some of these countries we spent 1-2 days; some were just for a quick stopover, as they are relatively small countries e.g. the Vatican City, Monaco and Liechtenstein. Don't worry, you're not the only one who knows nothing about Liechtenstein... The country is so small and quiet that not many people aware its existence anyway :P

We travelled with Contiki and we're lucky to have a History teacher as tour manager. Imagine going to Rome, the tour manager couldn't stop talking as the place is full of histories! :p It's a coach tour, so we spent a lot of time drooling (sleeping) in the coach before arriving at the next destination. The tour departed from London, but did not include London. So Kevin and I arrived a day earlier to visit London.

***********

LONDON

We flew with Qatar Airway with one transit at the Doha International Airport, and finally arrived at Heathrow International Airport 21 hours later. Freaking 21 hours...that's the only complaint I have for this trip. Thank God Qatar has pretty good in-flight entertainment system including a decent size touch screen TV! :)

Left: Qatar Airplane; Right: Doha International Airport - flat with sands

Majority of this blog is going to be picture based, enjoy! :)

English breakfast - so simple and delicious! ₤5.50 or so? comes with coffee and tea somemore!

Kevin and me having the English breakfast. You won't see Kevin much in my blog, so feel free to stop by longer at this picture :p

The famous London Eye

The London Eye was closed for maintenance during our travel period. I don't mind at all because I get bored sitting in such big ferris wheel waiting for it to make a full circle; and we didn't have that much time to spare in London anyway :)

Photo taken from a river cruise

Kevin with his new toy + London Eye in the background --- looking at this angle, I'm pretty sure he was shooting the Big Ben opposite.

We bought the Hop on-Hop off Sightseeing bus ticket that came with free river cruise, just in time to save our tiring legs after a whole day of walking :)

The Hop on-Hop off ticket could have been a good deal with the price of only ₤20 or so with unlimited bus rides and a free river cruise. However we ended up walking for the majority of the trip, and also so coincidentally major roads were closed due to mass demonstration; so we kind of wasted the bus ticket. Good thing is along the river bank, we saw many beautiful buildings from the river cruise.

London Eye at night

Close-up photo of me and the famous ferris wheel

Palace of Westminster with the Big Ben at one end and Westminster Abbey at the other end - view from River Thames

I'm in London! :p

Daytime: Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament

Daytime: Westminster Abbey - England's main religious building and the setting for coronation, funerals and marriages. Can't wait to see Prince William's wedding to happen here!

Let's talk about London's transport for a while. London is famous for its underground, because it has the oldest underground railway in the world! However from the eyes of a foreigner, I think London's underground is old, dirty and smelly :(

Quite nice from outside...

Underground: the tiles and roof are probably still the same old one since WW1! Even worse, the whole underground smells like homeless people...

Above ground is no where better. The road is always busy, full of cars driven erratically, and buses that emit horrible fumes! (well, at least not as bad as KL lah). p/s I took this photo because the silver car looked like a Kelisa! :p

Oh if you haven't noticed, London's taxis are UGLY - they look the same, like communist frogs.

If you think at night is much quiet, NO! You hear stupid honks and unnecessary sirens like every 5-10 minutes!

Thank you officer, for sounding your sirens so often that it disturbs the peace. I don't believe there's crime in London every 5-10 minutes. You probably just wanted to get out of London's notorious traffic jam, I get it.

There're so many of these telephone boxes in London. Looks nice from outside, but is smelly and full of pornographic material inside! I wonder if anyone uses them at all???!

The Hop on-Hop off bus

Enough of the transport system. Let's keep going with the rest of London:

Me at the Trafalgar Square - Thank God the weather was superb!

Walk through this gate, go all the way to the end you will see Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace in the evening

Prove that I was there :)

St Paul's Cathedral

Nope, I haven't forgotten the London Bridge. I must say the London Bridge has been overrated. Penang Bridge is 10x nicer than the London Bridge.

This is NOT London Bridge

Very nice yeah, this is Tower Bridge, not London Bridge. London Bridge is on far left (not in this picture), and it looks just like any ordinary stone bridge in the world, so no point taking photo of it.

It's called Tower Bridge, because it leads to the Tower of London on the left.

We walked across the bridge to the Tower of London

Random stuff: just thought the pub's name is funny :)

Tower of London

Guided tour at the Tower of London

A guard marches in the tower

The tower where the Crown Jewels are kept (no photo allowed inside)

Dinner at Jamie Oliver's restaurant

Recipe books on display

I think this is a calamari entree; right: dessert

I adore Jamie Oliver and I learned a few tricks from his show. Very happy to dine at his restaurant, which is not that expensive at all :)

Finish off this post with my favourite London snacks - Monster munch is the best!

Walking zombie in action

2011-02-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, I'm back!

After one week of struggling with the jet lag, my sleeping time is kind of back to normal. Well, not exactly. I took a tiny bit of sleeping tablet on Friday night so that I could sleep early and wake up for a morning shift on the next day; however, I overdid the sleeping and when the hospital rang my mobile at 9am asking why I wasn't answering my pager, I realised I was still in bed! The hospital lady was so angry over the phone "This is not acceptable! You speak to your registrar and explain to the manager!" When I stepped into the car, my pager beeped again: 'Ortho ward round starting shortly'. So I quickly called the registrar and explained that I worked till late the night before. He was so kind and told me not to worry about it :) He was probably trying to calm me so that I would drive safely to the hospital... Thanks to the freeway, I arrived the hospital at 9:30am.

Apart from fixing my sleeping time, I've been reading The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

The red-white stripes design resembles that of the original diary of Anne Frank. It comes with a blue book cover as well.

The Diary of a Young Girl are available in many versions. The original diary has been edited multiple times and translated into many versions and has been studied widely across the world. The edition that we bought is available for sale only at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. It's more expensive than the other versions, but worth the price as the coverpage resembles the original diary so much and the notebook itself contains some original extracts from the diary.

Very nice book to read. p/s: this first page contains the original language. Pretty much the rest of the book is in English and nicely typed :)

For information about Anne Frank or Anne Frank House, visit http://www.annefrank.org/

I'll write about my Europe trip in another post... Wait till my brain is more awake Zzzzz

End of Internship

2011-01-16T00:02:00.000-08:00

It's been a great year of internship and met some wonderful friends especially the interns that worked together in Bairnsdale. I never regret coming to Eastern Health and will definitely consider working with Eastern Health in the future :)

Good news: I passed my Victorian driving test!!! It's not that difficult afterall, just had to adhere strictly to the rules! I've been very good in the last few months driving to work below 60km/hour and watching other cars drove past my little Echo :( Now that I've passed the test, I notice I don't care much anymore and drive like what I did before :P

As you might have noticed, I don't update my blog that often anymore. Don't worry, I still love blogging but I just don't have the time to do it! Especially after coming home from work can be so exhausting that I just want to lay in my bed doing nothing! I know you guys miss me *wink* so here are a few photos of my pwetty smiles :)

Me + evil clown

Luna Park at St Kilda - full of people!!!

Kevin!

Kite surfing

Never get tired of Flinder St Station!

Curry chicken grilled with kaffir lime -- my own recipe and it's so delicious!

Before grilling

Very obvious this is before grilling too!

Crispy skin + juicy meat :)

That's it :) I'm going to Europe tomorrow and am very excited about it weeeeeeeeeeeee :):) Okay, time to make sushi now. See you in few weeks!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T15:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks to Becky for her lovely cookies and Andrew for the cute Gingerman cookie set :) I really like them a lot!

Time flies so quickly I didn't realise. I remember the first day as intern, I drove so carefully to work and made myself arrive extra early that day. I started to feel nervous when I received my FIRST PAGER in life. I answered all messages on my first day; I wrote long notes in patients' histories; and I reviewed every patient that the nurses requested. By afternoon, a patient of mine crashed. She was stabilised for few hours before she crashed again later that afternoon and passed away. I felt a lot of grief even though I hardly knew the patient. I had to cry in the ward kitchen before going into the room to certify my first dead patient... It was a pretty dramatic first day!

3 more weeks I'll finish my internship. Then I'll be working with another hospital network next year. I got pretty crappy rotations for next year (except for ED term). Hopefully doing 15 weeks of Relief and 10 weeks of Afterhours/Nights next year will not look that bad on my CV lah... Fingers crossed!

Merry Christmas to you again! :)

Something nice...

2010-12-18T22:50:00.000-08:00

Medical ward round is tiring and boring. Some days there are two ward rounds i.e. Registrar round in the morning and Consultant round in the afternoon. Usually we walk the whole hospital to see patients. By the end of the day, our legs get sore and tiring.

Yesterday arriving home from work, I saw a leaflet advertising OSIM's foot massager lying on my desk. It was from Kevin. Today he brought me to the shop to try it on. I really like it and soon after using it I felt my legs lighter. It also has heating system for the legs - good for my cool feet :) So he bought the foot massager!!! Also a handheld massager too!!!

Hehehe I'm very happy :)

I'll be even happier if the sky stops raining now and more sunshine on this summer! Also if Europe becomes warmer because Kevin and I are going to Europe soon!!!

Amazingly high tumour markers

2010-12-14T02:04:00.000-08:00

This patient does not have family or friend... She's in a lot of pain and refuses extra pain killer. All she wants is something to help her to die... Very poor thing...

Back from Malaysia

2010-12-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

Malaysia is a shopping heaven. I bought four pretty dresses, each dress averages RM 35!!! I was about to buy the fifth one before Kevin asked diligently: when do you think you would wear this?... So I put it back. I also bought four shoes: sandals, sneakers, working shoes and dinner shoes. Upon returning to Melbourne, I happily chucked away my 5.5-year-old Converse sneakers that I never EVER washed + three other old smelly shoes. I am very delighted with all my purchase including the wireless mouse that I'm using right now :)

I ate a lot of Malaysian delicacies, to name a few: Teluk Gadong seafood, bakuteh, Kajang satay, nasi lemak kerang, roti canai, karipap etc.

Also I hugged and kissed my nieces!!! They were both ill and this is probably how I got the infection :(

I was wearing a mask today and spotted by an infectious control nurse who expressed her concern about my coughing and recent travel. After failing to get an appointment to see my GP today, I was hoping that the infectious control nurse would just get me a script for some antibiotics. But she didn't...She gave me a nasopharyngeal swab instead to look for Pertussis/Influenza, and she told me not to come to work until I feel better. So here I am blogging + coughing at home, getting ready to infect Kevin Cheng when he comes home.

Updates

2010-11-19T04:38:00.000-08:00

Kevin and I just moved to new area recently. I have also changed my mobile number since 3 months ago. So friends and family, send me a message here or email me if you would like to have my new contact details :)

The new place is great, apart from narrow driveway... It's close to amenities and my workplace for next year. The house has an outdoor barbeque area in the backyard, a huge kitchen, big lounge and three bedrooms.

The lounge is so big I don't know what to do with it...

The move was not pleasant. Kevin drove a van and we did all the moving in the rain. Also we just got our internet connection yesterday. I am feeling a bit more settled now, but we'll be leaving for Malaysia in the next two days...Hopefully my one week break in Malaysia will be a relaxing one...

Maybe I am too exhausted now, I'm not feeling the crave for Malaysian food??

Pleural Tap

2010-11-03T23:32:00.000-07:00

My first go at performing a pleural tap: success!

Well, the site was pre-marked under ultrasound guidance. All I did was sticking a grey cannula after giving some local anaesthetic. It drained 1 litre of pleural fluid and all sent off for lab tests. Fingers crossed for a normal test *_*

She's alive!

2010-10-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

Correction to my previous post: my patient with septic shock did not die!!!!!! I am so happy!!! :)

I found out tonight from colleagues that the patient was initially sent to ward for palliation but amazingly survived following IV fluid and IV antibiotics. In fact she is now getting better and ready for discharge from the ward :)

I am so glad that:

I pushed boluses of IV fluids despite being told off by the ED nurse in charge that the patient was dying and I shouldn't be doing more things.

I gave her stat dose of broad spectrum IV antibiotics when I found out her temperature was 39C.

I did all the right thing before help arrived and before she was made NFR (Not For Resuscitation)

I feel so relieved knowing this. I would also like to see her personally on Saturday if she hasn't been discharged then :)

Last week of Bairnsdale

2010-10-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

I am feeling excited because I'll be leaving Bairnsdale on Sunday!!! :) I can't wait to be home with Kevin :)

I learn a lot during this rotation. Ward sucks but ED here is freaking awesome. Nights can be relaxing or stressful. At night, there's only one doctor for the whole hospital. My top record so far is seeing 16 ED patients on a night shift! The most serious night case I got was a guy developing compartment syndrome from crush injury from forklifter.

This is his x-ray

His leg was so tense and his toes were blue. He still got strong pulse and able to feel pain in his foot. I called the on-call GP immediately and he arrived in 10 minutes. I contacted the orthopaedic registrar from another hospital and told him "I have an urgent patient for you". He woke up straight away. We put a backslab on the patient's leg and he was transfered out in less than an hour.

The worst start of morning shift I had was two ambulance coming in at the same time, while two other patients already in the cubicles not seen by doctor and four patients still waiting outside the ED; and I was the only ED doctor in the morning. One of the patients had reduced conscious state and shortness of breath. She had crackles all over her lungs and elevated JVP. I treated it as acute pulmonary oedema and she felt better for a while but then her blood pressure started to drop. Then I noticed her temperature was 39C and realised she's in septic shock with possibly multiorgan failure. I called the on-call GP and the patient's daughter to get consent for "Not For Resuscitation". I gave the patient antibiotics and kept pushing fluids but her blood pressure kept dropping from 100 to 70 to 50. She was palliated then passed away...

from the patient's family

This is from a patient with pubic rami fracture after she was crushed from side by a farm quad bike.

I also get to manage other crazy ED cases such as:
- Complete finger amputation (this happened just yesterday)
- Febrile convulsion in infant (not that exciting)
- Moderate/severe dehydrated child
- Persistent profuse nose bleed in a lady also in rapid atrial fibrillation
- Respiratory failure intubated and transfered by air ambulance to metropolitan ICU
- Witnessed seizure in front of triage desk
- Post surgical intra-cranial collection
etc etc

Would I like to come back to Bairnsdale to work? Probably not. I learn a lot from Bairnsdale ED, but it can be stressful and the ward nurses here can be extremely annoying. One thing I surely miss will be the good food and beautiful sceneries here.

Fresh oysters!

Seafood platter and calamari salad - Fishermans Wharf Cafe, Paynesville

Paynesville (iPhone 4)

Second time coming to Paynesville with Kevin

Crab samosa with saffron rice, Ferryman's Seafood Cafe

Some kind of fish with almond crumbs

I finally try Viennetta at age 25 :) It tastes okay...

Bairnsdale with Kevin

2010-09-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

I am back in Melbourne for a few days! So glad to be away from some stupid nurses! Also really glad to come back to Box Hill for awesome chinese food and sleeping in my comfy bed and watching taiwanese shows on big LCD screen :) Now I don't feel like going back to rural tomorrow :(

Thanks to Kevin for coming down to Bairnsdale to cheer me up last weekend. We visited Bairnsdale and surrounding towns. Seafood was the highlight of this trip and in-built jacuzzi hotel room in Lakes Entrance was a total blast!

Paynesville

First meal of the day - fish and chips recommended by locals. Kevin and I agree this is the best fish and chips ever :)

Tasted even better when we had it outdoor watching the river and boats

Thought this is interesting...

waiting to board the ferry to Raymond Island, which is probably just 200 metres from the mainland. It's swim-able distance.

On the ferry...

That also carries cars for the residents of Raymond Island

Koalas are the attraction in Raymond Island. They live above the trees in people's backyard/garden. There're supposed to be many of them, but the weather was too cold we gave up searching for more...

Dumb nurse #1:
Nurse: Rachel, I'm quite concern about the gentleman in room X. I wonder whether he should be started on Clexane because he is not moving much...
Me: Show me his drug chart...
Nurse walked away. (dumb nurse always walks away and can't wait for order)
Me wasted my time looking for the dumb nurse just to tell her one stupid thing that she could have known herself:
Me: The patient doesn't need Clexane. He is already taking Warfarin for AF.

Bairnsdale

Prawn and salmon risotto, Riversleigh Restaurant

Dessert was a bit too sweet

Kevin

River Grill Restaurant

Escargot

Empty shells...

Dumb nurse #2 courtesy of a colleague:
Nurse (via telephone): Your patient is sick. Can you please come to see him?
Colleague: Tell me what's wrong.
Nurse: He is sick.
Colleague: What do you mean by sick?
Nurse: You just have to come. He is sick.
Colleague arrived at patient's bedside.
Colleague: what's wrong?
Patient: Oh, nothing. I just feel nausea...
Colleague was really pissed off by the nurse.

Lakes Entrance

View from Lakes Entrance's Lookout

Fishing boats

Me at the pier

Ferryman's Seafood Cafe

My all time favourite - fresh oysters!!!

And the seafood chowder was excellent!

The bridge that connects the land to the beach

Doing the jump!

The beach & scary sky. Earthquake in New Zealand and Kevin tried to scare me that the tsunami was coming...

Really enjoyed the sashimi entree at The Boathouse, one of Victoria's top ten seafood restaurant

They made it look like a fish head, nice concept :)

Creme brulae

Dumb Nurse #3:
GP: Rachel, why does Mrs X have a catheter in?
Me: No, she doesn't have one. As far as I know she doesn't have urinary retention...
GP: Yes Rachel, she has a catheter.
Me: Really??? But I didn't request for one...
GP turned around to look for the nurse:
GP: Why has my patient got a catheter?!
Nurse: We're giving her Frusemide. She needs a catheter to monitor her urine output...
GP scolded the nurse: I'm not happy! She doesn't need a catheter.
*Me feeling damn happy*

Metung

Passed by a few farms before arriving at Metung

Metung wharf

Villas and boats

Kevin and me

The water was crystal clear

Breakfast at Metung Galley

Strong wind!

End of trip

Bairnsdale

2010-08-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Went fishing with a friend yesterday and took some photos... I don't know what this place is called, it's somewhere along the way to Paynesville. The sunset scenery is quite nice :)

so pretty...

pink sky is cute!

had to zoom to the max when taking this picture

That's me! I don't look sick but I am down with flu + asthma

What so exciting?

2010-08-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

Exciting week so far :)

A patient with respiratory arrest had to be flown to metropolitan hospital on Tuesday night. I was ready with gloves on both hands, to receive handover from the paramedics as the patient being wheeled into the resus room. Already intubated, systolic BP of 64 when she arrived. Gave her a bolus. The GP arrived 5 minutes later and adrenaline infusion was commenced. Her pupils were unequal size, likely had suffered a degree of brain damage. Couldn't get pulses on one side of her body, the other side were so thready. Couldn't aspirate much blood so I was about to do a femoral stab, and the GP said he would put an arterial line so no need to stab her. Honestly, I didn't do much because most have been done by the paramedics or would be done by the GP later :) Probably the most useful thing I did was calling the ARV to look for ICU transfer and also writing a transfer letter --- typical intern job :P

Yesterday was fun. I tried to remove foreign body from a patient's eye using a needle --- failed. Then I tried using dental burr --- failed as well. Then the GP repeated few times using the dental burr --- finally successful! It was so cool!

Last night very funny thing happened. Little girl got a splinter in her thumbnail. I gave her EMLA cream and panadol before pulling out. Failed due to inadequate pain control. She was crying and screaming and the mom went teary too - seriously not helpful. Then I injected local anaesthetic. She screamed even more during the injection. And the mom looked like she was going to kill me... 10 minutes later I returned with my troop i.e. another intern wearing scrub, a motherly-looking final year student and a grandmotherly-looking nurse. Plus a tank of nitrous oxide a.k.a laughing gas. So the little girl giggled her way through as I pulled out the 1cm splinter from under her thumbnail. And the mom thanked me :)

I love my house

2010-08-21T03:12:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Melbourne! Although just for 3 nights, I'm glad enough to be able to sleep in my comfy bed and quiet room!

Kevin and me at David Jones before watching Salt

The last 5 nights I've been working in Bairnsdale's ED. Whenever I got time, I would sneak into the plaster room to sleep on trolley bed. But not for long, and the ward would page me to write up analgesia or sleeping tablet for their patients.

I must say I enjoyed the first 5 nights here being the only doctor at night. I encountered only 2 patients requiring resuscitation cubicle, but none of them was too sick to require transfer to metropolitan hospital. Also I only had to ring the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital once. The sickest patient I must say was a lady on the ward literally pouring out blood in front of me. Not long after that she became hemodynamically unstable.

Apparently nurses in this hospital are supposed to be very good. I DON'T THINK SO. Pretty dumb. A nurse-in-charge asked me to sign a slip for fecal occult blood test because a patient did not pass bowel motion for few days. What stupid indication? And the patient actually came in with black bowel motion...Also I expected nurses to get IV trolley, fluid and vital signs for that patient who vomitted blood, but they stood next to the bed trembled like a little mouse in fear. Another thing I really dislike about nurses here is they initiate drugs not written on the drug chart! For example, Chlorvescent! Their reasoning is, must get the potassium level to at least 4.0 for every cardiac sounding patient! The patient's potassium was 3.7 and she came in with resolving angina. Not even arrhythmias. WTF?!

I haven't been getting enough sleep mainly because of noises coming from the renovation work in the same building, every morning until evening --- meant to be my sleeping time then. I have been smelling poisonous fumes from the paints every single day and asthma hit me yesterday I had to use the puffer again. I managed to get 3 hours sleep after work yesterday before driving back to Melbourne. I'm glad to be at home now. Will be returning to Bairnsdale on Monday morning. Wish me luck!

Bye bye emergency

2010-08-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

End of ED term. Supervisor gave me very good performance assessment, in fact the best I've ever received. He asked me to consider applying for the FACEM this year so that my rotations next year can be counted into the accredited training. Also it's cheaper to apply in the first year. He and other consultants will be happy to write me references. I'm seriously considering it.

Back from work yesterday. Got a Cornetto from ED resident - a treat from him to all ED interns as we are leaving!

Driving home from work yesterday. Seeing sunlight means I leave work early. Only happens when I work in ED...

This and the first picture were taken using iPhone 4. Notice the first picture not as clear? Because it was taken by iPhone's front camera. I don't really mind. It's good that iPhone 4 has front camera and I can videocall my nieces using my phone when I go to rural rotation next week.

I'm a bit nervous about going to rural mainly because I'm starting night shifts in the first week. In fact I'm starting work on this Sunday night! Working night shift in this particular rural hospital = you will be the only doctor for the WHOLE hospital covering ED, surgical ward and medical ward at night. I better be good at prioritising and in acute care management including airway management because the senior doctor usually takes 5-10 minutes to arrive to ED for urgent cases. Meanwhile, I'll be the only doctor taking care of Category 1 patients in ED. A bit nervous, but I'm very much looking forward to it! :)

Me waiting for blood test and urea breath test (random)

I'll be driving for 4 hours to the rural hospital on this Sunday. Also I'll work on Sunday night from 10pm until 8am the next morning. I'll miss Kevin... Alright, wish me luck! :)

Now, everyone in ED knows my medical history

2010-08-03T14:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was awkward. I was a patient at our ED resuscitation room. Don't worry, nothing serious happened...

I had severe "gastric pain" for 6 hours. During that 6 hours my fellow intern and I went into the drug room to get me some Mylanta which didn't help much. I was so desperate to get rid of the pain so that I could work, I drank freaking 750mls of milk out of the patients' fridge. But it didn't seem to help AT ALL (milk used to work well for my gastric pain but not this time). A consultant saw me drinking milk for my gastric pain, he asked "Are you stressed? Maybe you need a gastroscope" -- that made me laugh but didn't take away the pain. Every bite of my lunch hurt my upper tummy so much I almost vomitted.

I was so nausea that I gagged after seeing a patient. My fellow intern almost gave me Metoclopramide, I refused. I took some Panadol. A Registrar overheard our conversation and he said to me "Why didn't you tell us earlier? You need to stop working now. You shouldn't be looking after patients when you are sick"

I was put into the resuscitation room as there was no other room left. Because it sounds like gastritis, my registrar asked me "Any stressful events? Are we paying you well?"

I'm like "I'm not stressed and you guys are paying me well!!!" It was really awkward because I was going to lift up my shirt to allow him to examine me, and he said "Oh no need! It's okay like this"

Given some Pink Lady, which helped a lot it numbed my tongue and stomach. The consultant took my name off the Wednesday's roster despite I refused it. So here I am, not working again today. I guess it's time to get a GP and urea breath test!

A day off

2010-08-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, I had a very unpleasant dream. Everyone including my family, sisters and friends tried to harm and kill me by various methods... I was clever I didn't trust anyone in the dream. Half way through my dream, I felt Kevin shaking my shoulders and saying bye to me - as he always does before he goes to work in the morning. I refused to wake up because I wanted to continue my dream to save myself. I managed to stay alive in the dream when I finally woke up... Phew! It was just a dream but I felt so tired after waking up...

I know you miss me. So here is a very current photo of me, taken just this morning.

I know you've seen this dish many timessssssssss but I'm still dying to show you the "mi hun ke" I make. I ate three bowls of this for lunch today :)

Lurve the fresh chillies

Speaking of food, I am craving for the followings:

Chee cheong fun
Char kway teow
Lala jian
Wonton noodle
Nasi ayam tomato
Mee goreng
Yuen yong
Roti canai
Hokkien noodle
Loh mai kai
Ham chim peng

Need to stop there, I am feeling hungry again. Here's something to stop my appetite temporarily...

A healing cut from one month ago

That tiny cut used to have infection and cause my foot to swell and red. It's now healed up but my ankle looks imperfect. Kevin says I should use SKII to get rid of the blackness =S

Tasmania Part 5

2010-07-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

Cataract Gorge
The last day in Tassie I went to Cataract Gorge in Launceston. It was early foggy morning and I could hardly see anything.

View of the north bank of Cataract Gorge from King's Bridge

King's Bridge

The tour guide left us at the King's Bridge and told us to walk from the north bank to the south bank of Cataract Gorge to enjoy the scenery before taking a chairlift from there. We complied at first, but after walking just a few metres and realised the walkway was slippery and it was too foggy to see anything, we decided to return to the car park and ask the tour guide to drive us to the south bank instead.

Car park

Arriving at the southern part of Cataract Gorge - First Basin

One of the attractions at Cataract Gorge is the world's longest single chairlift span. Each chairlift carries two passengers and the passenger is prevented from falling by a single safety bar placed right across the front of waist. The chairlift is not very high from the ground, but still quite scary because your legs dangle in the air...

I'm on the world's longest single chairlift ride!

Proof!

So pretty and the sun was coming out! I couldn't help but kicked the leaves as I passed through the green channel :P

There is a garden on the other side and a swimming pool too. The garden is special as there are many wild peacocks running around. So many of them, every ten steps you take you see one! I'm serious.

Fat peacock

Finally when the fogs cleared up, I got to see the Cataract Gorge!

View of Cataract Gorge from the suspension bridge at First Basin. It took me a while wonder why this photo so squarish, then I realise all other photos are taken wide screen haha! But still, this one looks too squarish!

The suspension bridge

The rest of Launceston
The rest of the day we visited a strawberry winery, bee farm and the city. Nothing to be excited about. Launceston city is old. I walked to Tamar Yacht Club and took some photos of the surrounding scenery.

Boats under repair

Many people in Launceston live on hills too...

A school

It was just an ordinary school. But when I walked pass this school, one of the tourists called me from behind, told me to have a look at his niece who was not feeling well at the other end of the street. About my age, she looked pale with cool peripheries and thready pulse. She told me her vision was blur and she just fell down. So I laid her on the floor, raised her legs and gave her water to drink. Her colour turned pink and she felt better. I washed the small abrasion on her palm before covering it with a bandaid I carried in my bag. Her young cousin standing next to us said to me "Are you like a doctor or something?"

Me (smiled), "Yeah"
Young cousin (sparkled eyes), "Cool!"

My Tassie trip ended with those girls invited me to play Monopoly card game with them at the airport :)

***** The End *****

Life is good when working in the Emergency

2010-07-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

I love ED. What a typical office-hour shift today 8am till 4pm :) This is rare for me as my shifts have always been ending at 11pm. My life's been great. I had yesterday off, and will have the coming weekend and next Monday off as well! This week I'm showered with abundant blessings - the Director of ED wrote me a reference for job next year! He spoke to me about ED training and gave me good suggestion what rotations I should apply next year. I am less uncertain now :)

Patients I saw today were all paediatrics. So far in my ED rotation, I have only admitted one paediatric patient into the ward. She was a baby so dehydrated with no urine output for 24 hours. She was literally floppy. I went straight to the ED consultant and we gave the baby IV fluid before sending her to the ward. Bear in mind still, many times kids are brought to the ED because of overly anxious parents and nothing else.

Almost everyday I get to do procedure in ED. Urgent relocation and backslab for a dislocated ankle fracture - it was cool and I actually saw the bone protruding still covered by the skin. I get to pull out the sides of toe nail (wedge resection) on a teenager with infected ingrown toenail and told him "don't do it again" :) I get to do stitches. Many stitches. Just did another one today on a little girl's eyebrow and I'm satisfied.

Stitching a teenager's chin 6 weeks ago. He fell off a motorbike, fainted and got a hole in the chin; woke up and drank a can of beer before coming to ED. How hilarious...

I have seen variety of cases. But one particular group I haven't dare to see is psychiatric patients. They are complex and have unstable emotions. This patient is on the triage list today:

Past history: Bipolar disorder
Went to GP today. Many things happened and feels like she "can't handle them anymore". GP asked patient to go to Hospital X ED. Patient doesn't know how to go to Hospital X, so she comes to this hospital's ED instead. (in which we don't have a psychiatric ward...)

This is a typical psychiatric patient. Their mind is messy and they don't do the right thing. I must say at least psychiatric patients I encounter here are not as emotionally attached to their carer - they come to ED without needing family's companion. Also most families are not overly protective or pushing for curative measures. They accept this is a new person and they just have to love this person starting from fresh.

I think I will pick up the next psychiatric patient that comes into ED. If they are not safe to live in the community, they'll need admission into Hospital X. But if they are aggressive, I won't see them at all :)

Tasmania Part 4

2010-07-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

Ross Town
Ross is a major stopover town between Hobart and Launceston. It is a 19th century colonial town and has been tourists's stopover point when driving long distance between Hobart and Launceston. Unlike many other towns, Ross has not been overly corrupted by modern tourism. It still preserves the quiet, original and sleepy character of the town with many old buildings made of sandstones still standing.

A misty morning in Ross

On Ross Bridge with the Uniting Church far behind (if you can see la)

Ross Bridge is Australia's third oldest bridge. Constructed in 1836, this stone bridge is a beautiful masterpiece of two convict stonemasons. After my trip to Tassie, I realise many things here are convict related. Apparently many people who come from Tassie are also the descendents of convicts...

Beautiful carvings on the side of Ross bridge belong to the work of Daniel Herbert, a convict stonemason

View from the bridge. Creepy yet peaceful

On the other side of the bridge

Brighter part of the town

There is a famous crossroad in Ross known as the Temptation, Salvation, Recreation and Damnation. One corner stood the Man-O-Ross Hotel (Temptation); the other corner is a Roman-Catholic church (Salvation); third corner is town hall (Recreation); and the last corner a jail (Damnation). The tour guide humourly asked which road we like, my answer was the town hall :)

Ross is also famous for murals. Even the post office has beautiful mural painting. This is one of the many street shops with murals...

Cradle Mountain
I fell in love with Cradle Mountain the first time I looked at its photo don't know how many years ago... People asked me why I spent so many days in Tassie, my answer is the 5-day-trip goes to Cradle Mountain!

Cradle Mountain across Dove Lake

It's not easy to get to the mountain. It is so secluded and visitors have to drive around another mountain to come to the national park before another 1.5 hours of spiralling nauseated driving :S

Drive around this...

Cradle Mountain forms the northern part of Cradle Mountain-St Clair National Park. It is a Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Rising at 1545 metres above the sea level, Cradle Mountain frequently covered by snow. But the few days I was there, the weather has been sunny! I missed out yet another snowy mountain!!!!

Who cares it snows or not, Cradle Mountain is beautiful as always!

To walk closer to the Cradle Mountain, just follow the Dove Lake circuit. A round trip takes about 3 hours, so it's a big lake!

Dove Lake is huge!!!

The water in Dove Lake is so clear that it reflects the mountains

Wow!

Frame this up haha!

Tamar Valley Resort
A 4.5 star resort. Not bad, but I wish Kevin were there with me :(

The reception building

Staying in a hut by myself is a little scary at night...

But otherwise the resort has beautiful scenery

Are all lakes in Tassie alway this clear??

Restaurant

Because the resort is on a hill and quite far from the city and amenities, you have to eat at their restaurant. Their dinner sucks and breakfast buffet is just ordinary...

Usual stuffs

Another misty morning on Day 5

***** End of Day 4 *****

Tasmania Part 3

2010-07-15T05:08:00.000-07:00

I'll be working night shift tomorrow, so I'm forcing myself to stay awake tonight hoping to change my body clock :) Sucks to stay awake when I'm sleepy but I love emergency medicine!!!

Tessellated Pavement
This is a rare erosional feature at Eaglehawk Neck, an isthmus connecting the Tasman Peninsula to mainland Tasmania.

Tessellated Pavement

Tessellated pavement is formed by cracks in the rock that occurs naturally from stressful action on the earth's crust and subsequently modified by the action of sand and salt.

Two types of pavement formation: "Pan" on the left and "Loaf" on the right

The "pan" concaves in the middle while the "loaf" protrudes centrally. The "pan" can be found beyond the edge of sea shore where salt crystallisation occurs and causes erosion on the surface of the "pan". The opposite is for "loaf" where it is found closer to the sea shore where rocks stay wet for a longer period causing less salt crystallisation and less erosion on the surface. Sand carried by the water erodes through the joints and makes the protrusion looks more prominent on the "loaf".

Me on the "loaf" formation

Found an interesting orange creature in a crack on the "loaf"

Apparently the orange creature was a sea cucumber, according to my tour guide. I thought sea cucumbers are long and supposed to stay on the sea floor but my tour guide said "there are different types of sea cucumber ma..." hmmm??????

Nearby and still at Eaglehawk Neck, there are the Tasman Arch, Devil's Kitchen and Blowhole all interesting natural formations:

Tasman Arch

Devil's Kitchen

Blowhole

Port Arthur Historic Site

Port Arthur 1830-1877

Port Arthur is a town on the Tasman Peninsula and was formerly a famous convict settlement. It was deemed inescapable prison due to its location and strict guarding.

Tasman Peninsula, viewed from Eaglehawk Neck

Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula. Located just next to the sea makes difficult prison escape

Remnants of the prison

There are rumours that the surrounding water was shark infested, and the mainland was strictly guarded by soldiers, man traps and half-starved dogs to prevent prison escape.

Inside the prison building

The cells. Visitors can pay to sleep for one night just to experience prisoner's life. I think this is a place for gutty people because many ghost stories happened at Port Arthur...

One of the many convicts here

There were attempts to escape the prison, but many failed. The famous one was a prisoner who used kangaroo skin to disguise himself and successfully entered Eaglehawk Neck before being spotted by soldiers who tried to shoot the "kangaroo". He surrendered and received 150 lashes.

Remnants of Port Arthur prison

Camera on uneven surface...

Church built by convicts

Port Arthur extends beyond the peninsula, including two islands nearby:

Island of the Dead - destination of those who died in the prison camp, with total of 1646 graves exist there

Island for juvenile convicts

The ferry that brought us around the islands

On the ferry, with the prison behind me

Dinner at Smolt, Salamanca Square
Instead of going out with random families at horrible restaurants recommended by the tour guide, I left the group at night and had decent dinner by myself at a modern seafood bar.

Tasmanian Salmon

Oysters

***** End of Day 3 *****