Bad n good stuff

e work week started on a tues... yay... hurray for ANZAC day...

started off horrible though... bleah... set a IV cannula for an anxious and low-pain-threshold lady... she screamed her head off when e needle went in only 1mm... din dare to advance further n stared at the resident. he looked kinda surprised n told me to take it out... then he tried to set it on e other arm... apparently she tried to resist a bit when the needle was inserted but din scream like she did with me... and i fled the place coz e rest of the gastroscopy pts prob won't allow me to set drip on them anymore. BLEAH!

learnt a lot this week... yay... getting e hang of their work scope, accent, basically e way they do things... n getting familiar wif the mutlu, scott n paul... so dun feel so afraid to ask qns anymore even though i think they were stupid qns... haha! n crashed liling's bedside tutorial with her nephro supervisor... on renal failure... e teaching was really good i thought...

had lotsa clothes to wash this week... bleah... haf been washing n ironing clothes since i came back from e grampians... realized my clinic attire's smelling a bit weird coz i haven't washed them for 3 weeks! hahaha!

ate instant noodles yesterday... yay... now, it's a yay coz i was craving so much for some noodle or kwayteow soup! and i bought a packet of Chu Qian Yi Ding with sesame oil from safeway supermarket... yumyum... it costs 75cents though... so ex compared to s'pore but dun care liao la...

more ppl joining us at the hostel... yay... 2 girls from england... haven't spoken much to them. but more company is good...

oh... i din say elke n andrea left right? bleah... miss their company a lot! she's always so bubbly and full of fun stuff to say... and andrea's forever tokking too... by e way, i found out tt elke's actually already 31 yrs old... and andrea's gay! thank goodness homophobic kenneth din know this before he left... he wouldn't haf spent hours in the kitchen tokking to him if he knew... hahaha!

found out tt steve (e guy from US but studying in germany, britta's bf) can play e guitar n sing really well! yay... hey! kejia he reminds me of u! he was having a concert with 4 of us as audience tt day... entertaining us with songs by nirvana, greenday, maroon 5, some german songs... really really good...

n work's ending on thurs... YAY! we're flying off to tasmania friday 4am!! yippppeee!! asked my supervisor if i can take a break coz we're going to tasmania and he seemed pretty happee to let me go! (now is tt good or bad? haha... nevermind, good for me la!)

The Grampians

We must be crazee to book a tour to the Grampians after spending 2 tiring days at Great Ocean Rd. but no time to waste!! we must see more of victoria before we leave!! haha!! plus the Grampians is actually this group of rocky and foresty mountains further west of melbourne in victoria. yesh... mountains means lotsa climbing n trekking! so yup, i think we were crazeee... but we survived!

Again we booked a tour coz liling hasn't been there b4 and it being mountaneous, we figured the road conditions must be quite bad. and true enough... PHEW! luckily we din drive... coz the roads were so tortuous! and they din even haf a metal barrier next to the cliffs!! (at least great ocean rd had!) if we veer towards our side a bit, downslope we'll go and then farewell...

as usual, the scenary was fantastic but this time, we hafta work our way up and downhill to catch them... got exertional dyspnea a couple of times, but good in a way la... coz can burn off the calories i ate on saturday nite. the company was less fun-loving... had only 13 ppl on e trip and e hongkongers din come along. so it was just 4 of us... pretty surprised to see a singaporean couple on the trip too. unfortunately, they're not really fantastic and nice ppl... e guy's alright but e girl's well... liling calls her a B*$&%... so we tried our best to avoid them as much as possible.

she's really strange... we manage to strike some conversation during morning tea and we asked her if she likes melbourne a lot especially since this is like her 2nd time here... and she said "no la... i dun really like this place..." and started talking abt how boring it is actually... and something abt them having only 1 week holiday so no choice gotto come here. do u get what she's saying? well, i dun... and her condescending tone disgusts me... then during one of e trek, she was leading the way and she was walking so fast! we're supposed to walk slowly n appreciate the nature around us... n look out for various flora n fauna along e way... so liling, ken n i decided not to follow their pace and slowed down to look around. anyway there was only 1 track, wun get lost...

obviously we got to the destination (venus bath) half an hr later... then she tried some small talk outside a toilet again... ken was telling her how we were enjoying e scenary and he kinda apologized for arriving late n holding everyone up (ken's our foreign minister rem?) and i was reviewing my cam photos n exclaiming how beautiful the scenary was... and she said "is this the first time u guys experience nature?" in that depreciating tone of hers again... we couldn't take it n made some excuse abt wanting to buy icecream n left without answering her. i have a good mind to tell her "u can't say u've truly experienced nature if u haven't been appreciating it isn't it?" n the likes of it... but well, i decided to save my breath!

anyway, most of e trip, we tried to avoid her, in e mean time feeling really sorry for her henpecked boyfren who tolerates her nonsense without any complaints... hahaha!!

enough abt tt insignificant character... the Grampians is a totally different type of erm... wat do u call it... habitat? there're manificent rock formations and mountains too but they're different from those at great ocean rd... firstly, e colour and substance is different already... those at great ocean rd r mainly limestone, tan brown in colour n it contrasts with the blue and green of the sea n sky really well... whereas those at the grampians are shades of grey against small groups of shrubs n canopies of rainforest trees. the great ocean rd, like i've mentioned r formed due to the forces of waves n winds... the Grampians however r formed due to the movement of the plates resulting in compression and rarefaction of the ground substance. (something lydat)

the best part of the trip was the Mackenzie falls... my first waterfall ever since i came to australia. i love waterfalls!! they gimme this refreshing and cooling feeling when u stare upwards from the foot of the fall. spent lotsa time taking photos there... there were plenty of dangerous looking cliffs along e first trek in the mountain... but WOW... e scenary is awesome as u walk along those overhanging rocks... and u suddenly feel like u're being engulfed by these massive rocks... n u feel tiny! haha!!

anyway, e weekend ended really fast but it was well-spent thru n thru!!

The Great Ocean Road

another weekend full of the natural wonders of Victoria... this weekend was a less erm... nerve-wrecking kinda weekend. coz we decided to take a tour instead of drive down to the Great Ocean Road. that means we dun hafta navigate and worry about getting lost and all 4 of us can sit in a coach, enjoy the scenic drive, catch a nap before we reach different lookouts n stopovers, talk crap and munch on tidbits, etc.

we decided to do a tour this time coz we've seen pictures of this Great Ocean Road drive... long long windy roads which seem rather treacherous... coz it's on a cliff right next to the big blue ocean!! sekali fengyi gets tired n miss a bend, we're in for a nice swim in the deep waters... no thanks man!!

the tour was great!! pretty personalized... and rather flexible. liling has always been against tours coz they always give unrealistic time constraints and u can't seem to get enough of a nice place... but this time round, even she tot the tour was fantastic! n of course, it was cheap!! only 112 bucks per person... n we get a nice tour guide who bbqs really well (had bbq n salad for dinner! n gosh.. i ate enough calories to last me e rest of e trip i think!), comfortable 24-seater bus, clean and comfy dormitories for the nite and good run-down on the different attractions we were visiting!

on top of it, we had really good company! oh! i din mention last week 4 fresh graduates from hongkong uni came for elective! they're super funnnyyyy ppl... hahaha!!! since they wanted to go to great ocean rd too, all 8 of us booked the tour together! we spent a few hrs tokking crap in the dorm tt nite... and viola! liling found out that one of them, called frankie, has the same bday as her!! 30 may... haha!! and they were high-fiving, etc... then we started revealing our bdays one by one... and WAH!!! another guy, called joe, has the same bday as me!!! how coincidental can it get man?!?! we haf 2 pairs of ppl with similar bdays among 8 ppl!! haha!! then ken n daniel were born in nov but diff dates... haha!! we spent e whole nite saying "oh... jan ppl r smarter than u may ppl.." n e likes... such a crappy nite... and e tour guide came by and said we were e noisiest bunch of ppl he'd ever seen... oops... haha!! he said it in a nice way, so we continued shouting n laffing at the top of our voices... hahaha!

sightseeing was e highlight of e trip... the Great Ocean Road boasts of its beautiful beaches such as Bells Beach and natural rock formations such as The 12 Apostles, London Bridge and Loch Ard Gorge. the entire 500-km road was flanked on one side by the vast ocean and the sandy beaches... so during e drive, we only hafta look to one side n we'll enjoy the cooling sea breeze, smell the fresh air and basically have an eye feast on the beautiful waves, natural rocks everywhere, smooth sand and occasionally ppl fishing n boardriding!

the natural rock formations were impressive!!! we managed to catch the 12 Apostles at sunset and WOW! it's so manificent it emits this sorta magical feel... and i just felt like i was in paradise! adding on some fog and radiating sunrays, it just totally overwhelms me! we spent a lot of time taking photos n staring at it as the sun slowly descends and light slowly withdraws from the rocks... and as tt happens, the colour of the rocks slowly changes... from bright reddish, orangy colour finally becoming a greyish hue when dusk approaches. impressive...

London Bridge is another attraction which has an interesting story behind it. It is not a man-made bridge... it's actually a piece of cuboidal rock with an arch in the middle protruding out from the mainland into the water. haha... but if u saw london bridge 15 years ago, it would've been a continuous stretch of land protruding out... now, it has a huge gap in the middle... (hmm... show ya pics someday! then u'll get a better idea of wat i mean) it's coz in 1990, due to the forces of the waves, the rock slowly gets eroded and finally there's a huge hole in the middle (i dun mean e arch). and with time, it finally gave way and collapsed, leaving this gap between london bridge and the mainland. apparently, at tt time 2 ppl were actually trapped on the far side of the rock... and when the helicopters n media came, they kept covering their faces and refused to be interviewed... hahaha!!! u know why? coz they were having an extramarital affair there!!!

Loch Ard Gorge also has a nice story behind it... it's another series of rock formations which really took my breath away! and it was our last stop for the trip, so we were given plenty of time to walk around and enjoy the scenary! afraid i can't rem much abt e details abt e story, except tt it was a story between these 2 ppl who were trapped becoz of a shipwreck... tom n eve i think... think tom was like some hero saving eve, e damsel in distress...

As i was touring great ocean road, it just suddenly hit me tt the best sculptor on earth is truly nature itself... man-made structures can never hold a candle to these manificent rock formations produced by nature itself! When u're presented with such a picturesque sight... a masterpiece of nature... u just lose ur ability to think anymore... all u wanna do is FEEL and let nature sweep u away!

Leisurely stroll and Warped Movie

yesterday was such a nice day... liling n i ended ward stuff at 3 plus and we took a train down to the city. we had a nice walk along Lygon St (aka Little Italy) and had a wonderful pasta dinner there! been so long since we give ourselves some pampering and splurge on expensive good food! haha! and after tt, we bought Gelato icecream... yum yum... but actually it was quite cold and there we were... 2 crazee girls in our thick windbreakers slurping our icecream cones... and walked all the way down the street to meet up with e rest of the girls for the german film!

oh.. din like e film very much.. still trying to figure out wat's the moral of the story... it's called Agnes and His Brother. you can visit this site for some synopsis... Agnes and His Brothers. note HIS brothers... urgh... e show's warped... i shall take a few days to chew on it and discuss with my frens and hopefully figure out what the show's trying to tell us... haha!

Ward work

ward work this week got a bit more hectic compared to last week... think i'm starting to warm up to the consultants, registrars and residents that's why.

there're 2 teams in my department - gastro team and liver transplant team. i prefer to follow the gastro team coz they see general gastro cases whereas the liver transplant team's too specialised into liver transplant work-up, post transplant complications n stuff.

Scott, the registrar, and Mutlu, the resident, are really nice people to follow. Occasionally, Prof Crotty's around for the consultant rounds.

I followed Mutlu to do some IV cannulation and ascitic taps on tues... the equipment and colours of the cannulas are of course different from those at home, so i took a while to adjust to them. and i miss the nice butterfly clips (for the uninitiated, with the butterfly clips, it's much easier to remove the needle and push the plastic cannula into the vein)... so i fumbled a bit the 2 times i cannulated. but not too bad, i managed to hit jackpot 2 times upon 2 without much difficulty.

and then he showed me how to do the ascitic taps... (again for the uninitiated, we place a drain into the abdomen of patients who have too much fluid in there from liver disease) after he completed one, he actually asked me "u wanna do e next?" i must've looked shocked... coz he said "it's ok if u dun want!" hahaha!! heng i quickly recovered n grabbed the chance... i was pretty blur when i did it but he was so nice to guide me along. and at the end of it, he actually said "tt was good!" phew!!

and yesterday i assisted Scott in some liver biopsies (they use ultrasound to find a good spot of the liver and we stick a needle in to draw out some liver tissues to view under the microscope)... there was a chinese patient who din speak much english so i helped to translate. haha!! Scott was so nice and he thanked me again n again for my help... and i was like "no no... thanks for letting me watch!"

even prof crotty who's like some big tua pai in the hospital (think he was the ex clinical sch dean of Austin) told me after ward rounds... "i'm sorry that was a bit of a rush! Hope you've learnt something! If you're free, come along at 11am tom again, we'll have more time for discussion then!" and during ward rounds, he always opens the doors for me, give way to me in the corridors... what a perfect gentleman!

i'm enjoying my posting so much coz ppl r just generally so nice, polite, gentlemanly, keen to teach! haha!!

anyway, it just hit on me last nite tt it's damn hazardous for me to do procedures in the gastro dep... coz 90 percent of the pts haf Hepatitis C or Hepatitis B... scary... i better make sure i handle the sharps and put on double gloves whenever i do stuff...

looking forward to a lady's nite out tonight... with the other girls in the hostel... the german girls, preeti (a melb student staying in e hostel) and chihiro (a jap elective student)! we're gonna catch a film at the german film festival in the city! yoohoo!! it'll be so fun!!

P.S. e other german guy's name's Ingor... i got it totally wrong!!! haha!! tot it was Yu-something... oops!

Weekend Adventures - Sunday

Despite the tiring day we had the past 2 days, we were all geared up at 8 to drive down to Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges!

Yarra Valley
this is a beautiful huge land with lots of vineyards and orchards! we got lost a couple of times and din know what was happening n wondered where the wineries for free wine tasting were! then we realized we were using a lousy map!! which hardly has anything n is so difficult to use...

luckily i managed to find a good map which shows accurate landmarks which we can follow and also designated tourism areas for travellers. so i ended up doing most of the navigation for Yarra Valley. haha!! can u imagine ME navigating?? my cg mates'll prob go "HAHA... how can gerri navigate? she's got absolutely no direction sense!!" (really... coz i'm always e one making the wrong turns n landing everyone in the wrong places in the hospitals! haha!)

hey! i did a damn good job k... we managed to find our way to more than 5 wineries, a magic rose garden, the big bouquet and en route to Mt Dandenong. A pretty refreshing trip (nope... we din get groggy from drinking too much wine...)... in e sense tt we picked up some wine culture along e way, admire the beautiful vineyards, made frens with the vineyards owners... most of them offer free tasting of their wine... u can taste most of their wine... the red wines like pinot noir, merlot, etc... and the whites like sauvignon blanc, chardonnay. e wines from different wineries taste very different... even if they haf e same name, say chardonnay for eg. so u actually gotto really taste it, see if u like it... n buy it if u do!

I bought a sauvignon blanc coz e minute i drank it, i loved it!! it has this very refreshing taste tt's not too rich... i think the trip also made me realize what kinda wine i like... i tend to like the more fruity type compared to e nutty flavours and also e blander kind... trying to sound like a wine connoisseur... haha!

i also fell in love with this sparkling pinot noir from a really posh winery... e guy there was really nice n taught us lots of stuff abt wine culture... explaining to us what's e diff between shiraz and merlot, etc... it seemed to be the only place tt had sparkling wine and it tasted really nice! so i couldn't resist it n bought one immediately... their wines r relatively cheap i think... to think tt they're all freshly made.. most of them are 2003's or 2002's.. can't find them anywhere else except in their specific vineyards... i bought e sauvignon blanc for only 20 and the pinot noir for 16!! not bad huh???

the rose garden was.... WAAHHHHH!!!!... i was like... r u sure this place exists on earth??? r u sure it's not heaven?? haha!! i've never seen SOOO many roses at one time... all sorts of different colours n patterns on their petals somemore! the garden boasts of its more than 200 varieties of roses!!! took lotsa photos.... and hey!! there was a rose bush named after me! took a photo n kept a dropped petal in my book... haha... so beautiful k... geraldine... (okai.. i mean the rose)... hahaha!

the big bouquet is this place which sells gerberas... beautiful place too but a pity we din haf enough time n din wanna pay 7.50 for a haphazard tour of the place... mandy would love e place though... her fav flowers... haha!

Dandenong Ranges
din like dandenong ranges much coz we din spend much time there... it was just this drive up the mountain and then at various observation points we get panoramic views of melbourne city and the surroundings... nothing much...

there are some attractions around among the ranges coz it's actually a self-sufficient town kinda place... ppl actually live there... but there weren't enough time to tour the place... coz we spent too much time at beautiful yarra valley.. almost din wanna leave yarra valley actually... haha!

Yup! so tt was a fantastic weekend spent! lotsa getting lost, getting close to nature, getting frustrated! most impt is we all learnt stuff from e trip and got our very own experience in these wonderful spots of Victoria. and of course, got back home to Austin campus in one piece! YAY!

Weekend Adventures - Friday n Saturday

waited soooo long for e weekend and it finally arrived! this weekend, we were gonna go to queen victoria market, phillip island, yarra valley and dandenong ranges! sounds exciting isn't it? hahaha!!

Queen Victoria Market
this place is a shoppers' paradise!! it's SOOOO huge!!! it's divided into diff parts, one selling raw meat, fish, etc.. like any wet market. one selling groceries, one selling dry produce like nuts, dried fruits, etc, another one selling ready-made food (more like foodcourt) and a HUGE compound for lil knick knacks and souveniers almost like a flea market.

e things r relatively cheaper than those in SAFEWAY supermarket but it's right in e city n we're located at the suburbs... so it doesn't make sense for us to pay 5.90 to take a train down to buy our daily food n stuff...

spotted some nice souveniers i wanna get... but din buy coz we were carrying so much stuff for our weekend trip, we couldn't carry anymore. looks like we'll hafta make a trip to queen victoria market again just b4 we leave for home!

Phillip Island
thanks to liling's good memory (she came to melbourne last yr n rented a car b4), we managed to find a car rental company offering only $142 for 3-day car rental.. a hyundai compact automatic car in perfect condition, less than 1 yr old... small enough for easier driving on narrow roads and parking and large enough for 4 of us!

it was a looong loooong drive to phillip island... abt 3 hours... with kenneth navigating, fengyi driving, me taking photos and liling sleeping! haha!

e first attraction we went to was The Nobbies. any description from me would prob spoil ur impression of this place... coz u've gotto see it to believe tt it's really really amazingly beautiful!! It's located at the south coast of Phillip Island and it has this wooden pathway for us to walk n enjoy the scenic view out into the sea and rocks! it was freezing cold with the roaring wind and our teeth were chattering as we tried to take as many photos as possible... i'll upload them when i get back so u guys can see how beautiful the place is!

we left The Nobbies to rush for a penguin parade before sunset... it's this place tt features wild little penguins leaving the sea to walk up to their nests on land in the evening! they do tt everyday... and they're all wild, not trained to do e parade! we had to sit on benches placed on the sand and wait for penguins to start their march! it was again freaking cold and we had to whisper softly so we wun disturb the penguins. finally, someone said "There!!" and we all started looking around the waves for penguin heads popping up... soon, the penguins start to form a row and stood near the end of e tide....

they'll like stand there for goodness-knows-how-long.. and suddenly, a brave soul will march forward across the sand up the land and the rest will follow... occasionally, there's also this weakest link of the grp which'll cowardly dash back to the water, causing all e rest to think something's wrong n dash back in with him too. haha!! so they do this like a few times... inch up to the coast, dash back in, inch up again... until they're all finally brave enough to go right across the beach into the bushes and nests. apparently, they're all so scared to run across coz that time of the day is the most dangerous part of their lives... due to lurking predators and other dangers on land...

After we're done seeing a few grps cross the beach, we get to walk along paths among the bushes and watch them continue their parade on land into their individual lands! we get really close-up views of the penguins... like 30cm away from my face... esp those tt march close to our paths... really really CUTE... and they look kinda dumb with their waddling too... haha!!

Sleeping in a Car
By the time we finished up with the penguin parade, it was already 8.30pm and very dark. We drove around to look for this YHA hostel which we planned to stay for the nite... unfotunately, we couldn't find it... think it prob closed down coz it was supposedly offering only 16 bucks per person per nite... haha... and this other posh looking accommodation in e area was like 130 bucks for a double room... din wanna pay for tt, so we decided to sleep in the car... a bad bad decision...

Our compact Hyundai was of course not big enough for a comfortable nite's sleep... with e guys squashed up in front and e girls in the back seat, none of us managed to sleep well at all... although e guys get to incline their seats, they had much less leg space... and for me, to be able to sleep i must not haf to support my head against gravity, so i was like trying all sorts of weird positions so i can get my head down on my seat... i ended up having to change positions every half an hr otherwise my back n neck'll become really sore... so wasn't much of a sleep too...

n coz it was so compact, every lil movement one person makes will wake everyone up... for light sleepers, there were the frequent stomach growls... plus kenneth took it upon himself to sleep lightly so tt he can at least jagar all of us...

when the sun slowly crept up, we were so thankful the nite was over... and were up awake by 6.30... all of us also vowed never ever to sleep in a car again... n to pay for proper accommodation no matter what... hahaha!

we washed up quickly at a nearby library toilet and we're off driving to the next destination - the Rhyll Inlet! half munching our take away sandwiches for bfast.

Walks n Walks
spent the whole morning walking around Conservation Hill at the Rhyll Inlet which is a mangrove swamp (a bit like our Sungei Buloh)... went to the Woollamai Beach to look at some crazeee boardriders haf a boardriding competition on e waves. i think they're nuts coz i was wearing a long john, a thick blouse and a windbreaker and there they were, boardriding in the icy cold waters in just their wet suit. nice sceneray at Woollamai Beach too but not as nice as The Nobbies...

our walk on Churchill Island was really fun too!! first we visited this heritage house called the Amess House, once resided by some famous guy who found Churchill Island (nope, his name's not Sir Churchill... haha! think it's James something... see? if it's Churchill i would've remembered). The house has got this strong english flavour in all the furniture n decorations... and there's even vege garden and a barn with 2 big stallions.

the 2 big stallions were having some food when we went over to disturb them... take photos n stuff... and one of them stopped eating n came near to us... n started snorting (prob saying "buzz off n stop irritating me"). haha! i was so thrilled to be so close to my favourite animal! even caught a few strokes on his face n neck... carefully avoiding his mouth of course...
after tt, we had lunch at this beautiful cafe... it was such a great feeling to eat and admire the natural surroundings, take in the fresh air and bask in the warm sun rays... wow... won't ever get such a feeling in S'pore...

Koala Conservation Centre
this is my most favourite attraction of phillip island! I've seen so many pictures of koalas, heard so much abt koalas but haven't SEEN a live one right be4 my eyes yet! not until saturday of course... haha...

again, all these koalas are wild koalas... kept in this conservation centre which grows n provides eucalyptus trees for the koalas to live in and eat... they also set up nice bridges n walkways for tourists to move around n get a closeup view of the koalas!

koalas are really lazy animals... they sleep 20 hours of the day... haha! n they look soooo fluffy, fat and heavy... it's amazing how the thin eucalyptus branches can withstand their weight. we were really lucky coz we spotted about 10 koalas for the whole walk... oh... all e tourists there walk with their head high looking for koalas... so funny... and u really gotto scrutinize coz their grey fur camouflages very well with the tree branches... plus they tend to go pretty high up!

e four of us were playing "spot-the-koala" game during e walk and hahaha... i'm really terrible at it. liling's best at it!! she'll always be the first to go "THERE!" then i'll still hafta look n look n ask "where? where?" b4 i see 'em. haha!

yup! so tt last attraction ended our nice tour of Phillip Island... which means another long 3-hour drive back to our hostel in Heidelberg. of course we all had a super deep sleep with lotsa beautiful dreams tt night! haha!

Stuff here n there...

Blackouts
had 2 blackouts last night and 1 e night b4... once when we were in liling's room listening to mp3's, another when we were having dinner in e kitchen and last one when i was alone in my room reading a book. hahaha!! when e first time it happened, we were like "WAHH... what happened? oh no!!" n ran out of liling's room to find out what's going on... only to find tt the rest of e other students were still happily in their room or in the kitchen tokking as though nothing happened!

then when the next 2 blackouts happened, we understood why... hahaha!! coz it's such a normal occurence!! some of them were speculating tt it may be some way to save electricity for e whole city... oh well... in s'pore, when a blackout happens, it hits e headlines!! haha!! so let's all be thankful of our protected life in s'pore and not pull up a fuss n start blaming everyone when things lydat happen!

Glorious Asian Food
wow... we managed to find cheap HOMEBRAND rice from the supermarket... and we cooked **RICE** for dinner! wah... my favourite staple... really missed eating rice these few days! it's e only thing tt never fails to make me satisfied and happee! Xuening will agree wif me! hahaha! best was we din haf rice cooker so i had to cook it using a pot n stove... din know how much water to put also... so just agar! haha!! and it turned out not too bad i guess... fengyi said a bit undercooked... haha! topped wif a sunny side up, stir-fried buk choi and baked beans, it was e yummiest n most filling home-cooked dinner i had since i came to melbourne!

The Germans
there're about 6 germans here for elective at Austin as well and they're all staying at the students' quarters too! Some haf really cool names... like Elke (pronounced as Elka), Bernedetta, Broota (dunno how to spell... haha!), Yu#@$ (i dun even rem how to pronounce).. hahaha! others more normal... Andrea and Steve. we're closer to Elke and Andrea coz they stay at the same floor as us so we usu chat during bfast or dinner. They're really cool ppl... coming all the way from germany for an elective in english (not e main lang for their medical education)! Elke's like really active and spontaneous! always cracking jokes and making funny comments... Andrea's very talkative n tells us a lot abt his hometown and stuff...

Bernedetta and Yu#@$ (feel so bad for writing his name like this... shall find out his name tonight..haha!) are couples and so are Steve and Broota... they stay upstairs n tend to stick to themselves so we dun tok much. but Bernedetta's really really pretty i think... haha!

they are so lucky to get 1 whole year for electives... so like elke'll be going to new zealand for another elective after this one here... n although they mainly use german back home, they're so willing to come out here to learn in english... n also not afraid to communicate in english with everyone! wow...

Ladida...

haha... it's 2.45 pm and i'm back in the lib typing blog again...

went for a Xray-patho Gastro meeting today... they flashed a couple of ERCP's which i had no clue abt except for e demonstration of plenty of bile duct strictures which complicated liver transplantation in a couple of patients. think i gotto work on catching their accents... maybe i just hafta adapt to it slowly... coz sometimes they'll say something which i cun catch and i'll totally miss wat the whole topic's about. ARGH!! and too paiseh to interrupt n ask for a repetition... but thankfully, i'm catching more stuff today compared to the liver transplantation meeting on e 1st day. so maybe by next week, i'll be more accustomed to the accent.

clinic session was pretty interesting... as usual, i'm gonna harp on e fact tt i get to see weird conditions!!! those written in e angmoh textbooks but not found in NUH or SGH wards!! hahaha!! think this elective's becoming really fun! saw haemochromatosis (for the uninitiated, it's this genetic disorder which results in increased iron absorption from the intestine and hence iron deposition in multiple organs resulting in damage of these organs)...

gosh n the patients here r really well-informed and motivated to guard their health... so unlike those back home... for eg. this guy just discovered he has Hep C and was told he needs to curtail his alcohol intake and the best is achieve abstinence. and in e clinic, he told e dr abt his plans for dropping the addiction... like how he's planning to just drink 3 days instead of everyday nowadays... and week by week, he'll keep reducing until he's totally off it. wow!! such a guai patient...

think back home, e dr will be teaching those plans to the patients but most of them wun listen! same goes for e diabetic patients here... i think i overheard ken saying tt e patients he sees in the clinic also knows a lot abt their condition and really strive to modify their lifestyles so they control their diabetes.

had free food just now... haha! they haf really nice free lunches here sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies! really good stuff even... salmon and ham sandwiches!

Slack Day

haha... my day in the hospital ended at like 11 plus yesterday... supposed to go for ward rounds at 8 in the morning. went to e wards, couldn't find any of the drs... so clerked a patient! sheesh!! i forgot how to clerk already... i was like thinking... okai... past med history... wat's next... hahaha!! my brain still in a holiday mood leh.. i must've looked super blur in front of e pt! but she was such a sweet lady.. even offered to let me examine b4 i asked!

Gastroscopy
anyway, after tt i joined Paul (my charming supervisor) at the gastroscopy centre. saw a couple of oesophageal varices due to Hep C cirrhosis and endoscopic banding which they use for prophylaxis of variceal bleeding in large varices. oh! n i actually saw a primary sclerosing cholangitis!!! wow... one of those conditions which are so rare in Asians that i din even bother to read for the patho exam.

okie... looks like it's time to change a bit of mindset coz i'm in a country wif caucasian population and caucasian diseases. All those strange diseases must go read up liao... otherwise i can't keep going on wif the excuse that "oh.. i dun see tt in s'pore, so i'm not really sure what's tt."

and i'm gonna sing "it's a small world after all... it's a small world after all..." coz i met a melb medical student so i just shun pian asked her whether she knows Grace n Ruba... and she was like "HEY! how do u know them? I'm really close to them!! we hang out together!!" hahaha!! but i was quite sad to find out tt Grace is doing a rural posting somewhere really far, so i wun get to see her... hopefully we can arrange something over e weekend...

anyway, yup... yest was a really really slack day... i had e whole afternoon free... to read some stuff, type blog, reply emails, haf lunch, chit chat, go supermarket, cook dinner, play cards and tok crap in liling's room... haha!! good life huh??

SAFEWAY supermarket
this supermarket's like our NTUC fairprice... haha... even though the products r different but somehow tt's e feeling we got when we entered e place. there's this HOMEBRAND products which r super super cheap for almost everything... so u can imagine two girls ploughing through all e shelves looking for homebrand chicken, homebrand pasta sauce, homebrand pasta, homebrand cheeze. hahaha... when we paid at the counter, everything was homebrand... so funny...

we were too ambitious also, coz we bought too many things n ended up lugging them several streets to get home... haha... totally din expect the distance home to be so long...

Our Favourite Game
liling, ken n i are getting addicted to gin rummy... we can't play bridge coz fengyi refuses to play cards wif us... think it's some principle thingy or just personal preference la i guess... n we forgot how dummy bridge goes liao (someone enlighten me?)... n we were chitchatting while playing cards also... tokked abt really deep stuff... relationships, life, expectations, etc... pretty enjoyable evening i must say...

First Day Of School

Rise n shine... it was 8 am n i gotto drag myself outta bed... still wif e sores from the xiong weekend i had! and finally it's not 31 degrees anymore!!! heng ah! coz i'll be wearing a long sleeve shirt in the hosp (din bring much short sleeves)...

Kinda scared n edgy coz din know what it would be like at the wards here... heard australian students tend to be very vocal whereas i'm pretty satisfied standing round the corner n watching what they do really... met up wif my supervisor, Dr Paul Gow... really charming old man i must say... and good physique too... he can't be very young coz he's got white hair. nevermind, one day i'll find out how old he is... haha! ohh... have this thing for old man who maintain themselves well over the years instead of developing pot bellies... haha!

he's really nice, had a chat wif him abt my expectations for the posting... he drew out this timetable abt stuff tt's going on for the department. took special note that he said "you can come IF YOU WANT"... haha! so looks like i can dun go if i dun want to... tt's impt... haha!

OH!! must tok abt the most embarrassing thing that happened to me... e departmental secretary, Anne, was taking me on a tour... and i dunno how i slipped n fell as i was going down a slope... stupid court shoes!! grr... and i had to hold on to a DUSTBIN to keep my balance. got an abrasion on my knuckle coz it hit the tar ground... waahhhh!!! both of us were positively shocked... hahaha!! and she kept asking me if i was hurt. haha! sheesh... she must think i'm a klutz... oh well, maybe i am but she doesn't hafta know it like on e first day right?? haaaiiii...

after tt, i joined the whole transplant team for a liver transplant assessment meeting... where they screened through details abt every pt to be activated for transplant, those already activated and those posttransplant. they were going realllyyyyy fast coz i think some of those pts they kinda know their case notes by heart... and everyone knows wat was going on except me... all i caught was... there r a lot more Hep C compared to Hep B... n many more diseases that r rare in S'pore... like primary sclerosing cholangitis, primary biliary cirrhosis...

one thing of note is, their transplant team's multi-disciplinary... (though i'm not really sure how it's done in s'pore) e entire team comprising of medical social worker, occupational therapy, nursing officers, psychiatrists, surgeons, physicians all sit down together n talk! this way, they get a more wholistic approach towards the patients... for example, they'll actually talk about issues like anxiety in the patient, whether they're mentally prepared for the liver transplant, whether post transplant patients are willing to get up n walk around, family background and support, etc. really nice...

i haven't seen much of this in s'pore hospital at least... all ppl do is refer blue letter... and the psychiatrist review the patient n write in the case notes. think this system of sitting down n discussing patients as a whole individual is something great which we should learn!

next, it was afternoon ward rounds... they do e rounds after sitting down n discussing the case notes... so everyone know roughly the progress of the pts... then we see e patients!

i was basically rather quiet, still getting adapted to the people here... and plus, i only knew today that i'll be so closely dealing wif liver transplant patients... din read up on anything at all!!! so i spent the evening n night reading up on liver cirrhosis, portal hypertension, oesophageal varices... hopefully i'll be able to participate more n ask more "intelligent" questions the next day...

St Kilda's Beach

haha... all of us (except army commander fengyi) woke up with sore feet and aching leg muscles... but tt din stop us from venturing out to St Kilda's Beach as planned! so we prepared some nice picnic food again, took a train n tram down to St Kilda's Beach! on sundays they haf this flea market for souveniers n stuff... spotted some really cool stuff like accessories, ornaments... but liling said Queen Victoria Market cheaper (really loudly in front of the store owner... hahaha!)... so i din get anything.

St Kilda's Beach
Super windy but still hot at about 31 degrees and scorching sun! main difference from S'pore beach is it's SOOOOO CLEAN!! wow... u hardly see a piece of rubbish or plastic bag on the soft sand! n it was super crowded coz everyone was taking e opportunity of the hot weather to get a tan or swim there. we mainly walked around, went to port melbourne (i think), took lotsa photos and watch ppl (correction... HUNKS.. haha!) play beach volleyball.

Sandstorm
earlier on, i commented abt how come it's so windy but the sand stays where it is and doesn't get into our eyes... ok i take it back. we were finishing up our delicious (we haf hidden cullinary talents among us man...haha!) packed lunch and as fengyi n i were drinking water, there was suddenly this gush of wind mixed with lotsa sand towards us... i took cover in time whereas fengyi's water ended up wif floating sand in it. wah... then the clouds turned really dark and the sandstorm got worse n we had to run indoors.

Rain Rain Go Away
looking at the gloomy clouds, we decided to leave St Kilda's Beach asap... n seek shelter at some shopping complex in e city. so we ran to a tram stop and boarded a tram to the city. lucky for us, we escaped the rain and got to Crown's complex which houses all the entertainment stuff in one BEEEG building. it has a huge multi-level casino (saw more chinese there than caucasians... hmm...), movie theatres, shopping mall, pubs, etc. Found cheap cheap fish n chips going at 2.80 per plate. haha... not much la but ok for a light n unhealthy dinner. (If u haven't already noticed, everything abt this trip must be cheap cheap!! budget control during meals to pay for our travelling expenses during the weekends)

Another day of K.O.ing b4 washing my clothes n reading up... slept at 10 plus while reading GI History Taking in Tally. sigh... gotto be more diligent once i start my posting proper...

Melbourne City

we went to tour melbourne city on saturday! learned how to take the trams and walk around the city. and it was SOOOO hot!!! 31 degrees!! wah... it was like worse than singapore coz on top of it, it was super dry...

we walked lots n lots n lots... until we all almost dieded... Shu Li (liling's fren who's studying in melb) was wif us... and she wasn't even tired at all. said she's used to walking around already. haha! and thank goodness she was wif us... otherwise we would've been super lost and prob end up walking the wrong way n all...

today was a park day actually... rather than a city kinda day... we went to lots of parks, all along the Yarra River... beautiful river... e biggest being the Royal Botanic Garden. had picnic there! hey! we made our own food... mash potato, boiled vege and ham... we woke up early at 7am to cook k... hardworking eh? fengyi was like making mash potato for the first time of his life... and it turned out nice!!! he added some cheese in it which gave it some taste... liling n i cut n boiled the veges... ken was in charge of transporting them to our picnic ground... haha!

then there was an international flower festival. sounded interesting n it happens only once a yr so we paid 14.50 to get in. at first we tot it would be rows n rows of flowers on display... in the end, it turned out to be some kinda gardening flea market... lotsa stalls around... selling seeds, pots of bonsais, gardening tools, books... blahblah... also got flowers on display la so took lotsa nice photos... haha! wanted to buy the lavender seeds but guess they wun grow in singapore... hai... they smell soooo nice...

after tt, we were sooooo tired of walking and so sticky from the perspiration (wah!! i tot i wun perspire in melb!!) and we wanted to just find a place to sit n eat!! Shu Li brought us to a chinese noodle restaurant which is cheap cheap! and super filling! tasted good too prob coz we were starving already... haha!!

and tt ended our day... K.O.ed immediately after i got back... no time to wash my stinky clothes or read up... haha...

I'm in Melbourne!!

Wow... I'm in melbourne and u can't believe how excited i am! Well, i only managed to get internet access today so no entries for the past few days... but hey... can't wait to tell u all abt what happened the past few days!

The flight
night flight was horrible... not much nice shows to watch... only caught lemony snicket's series of unfortunate events... wanna sleep but couldn't sleep coz the chair was so uncomfortable and there was so little leg space. economy flight la what to do... when i finally caught a wink, somebody in front had to switch on his tv and the bright light woke me up...coz his chair was down but e one in front of me wasn't... so there was a huge slit for the light to pass thru... then i put on e eye patch provided n tried to sleep but i got woken up at like 2am (melb time) for breakfast! sheesh i love food la... but who e heck has breakfast at 2am? oh well... but the raisin croissant was nice la! hahaha!

Upon arrival
we arrived at melbourne at abt 5 am... haha! there were so many doggies around sniffing for drugs n food! this doggie caught a lot of ppl... so smart... oranges n apples in this girl's pocket, biscuits in a lady's luggage... luckily they din manage to sniff out liling's coffee powder. tokking about doggies makes me miss jay jay... sobsob...

after tt, we took a skybus to Spencer St... and we din know where Spencer Train Station was... we had to like ask 3 ppl on the street. haha! wif our huge luggages, we looked kinda funny...
took a train from Spencer Train Station to Heidelberg Station which is where Austin Hospital is... wah!! when we reached Heidelberg, the Hospital was right in front of us but they were doing some construction works, so we din know where the entrance was... or where the student's quarters were. so we walked n walked n dragged our luggage along wif us... up the slopes, down the slopes, up the ram, across the bridge, down 2 flights of stairs... it was definitely an adventure man... esp for liling n i coz our combined luggage weight was 39.2 kg... we were positively exhausted at the end of it... and perspiring even though it was like less than 20 degrees celcius.

anyway, things went well after all, we finally found the Clinical School office, got our keys, got the security guard (George) to fetch us to the Student Quarters.

In Student Quarters
i must be super suey... coz the room i got huh... wah! blinds cannot come down so the bright sunlight was filling up the whole room... door cannot lock also... only realized it after i cleaned up the tables, emptied some of my luggage... darn all e work for nothing. anyway, heng there was an extra room somewhere, so managed to change room... now my room's perfect! everything works perfectly... blinds tt work, door that's lockable, nice bed, clean tables... now wif all my barang barang... it looks as liling put it "very well lived in"... which is a euphemism for "MESSY" i suspect... haha!

lotsa facilities in here i must say... for just 45 bucks a week... fully-equipped kitchen, free oatmeal, bread, milk, jam, etc for breakfast everyday (but wat e heck, we can eat them anytime we want), laundry facilities, clean toilet and shower, table tennis table, tv room.

haha! hostel life... something i really wanna experience b4 i leave uni... but too bohliao n waste $$ to live in NUS hostel... n now i can get it here in melb!! it's like a dream come true... haha!! and if i get sick of it (which i know i will... will def miss my mom's pampering), i can pack n go back to dear home in 7 weeks' time! perfect isn't it? haha!!

Exploring the area
after we all settled into our rooms, we decided to explore the Heidelberg neighbourhood n look for cheap food and groceries. otherwise we're gonna be stuck eating at the hosp bistro n minimart which is not very cheap. asked the students and the hostel cleaner there... who gave us some directions. hahaha... we still got lost in the end... and din even manage to find the big SAFEWAY supermarket they were tokking abt. but we managed to get some groceries from this other place called Leo's.

Pizza Overload
Man!! Pizzas here are good bargains! we bought 2 large pizzas and 1.5 litres diet coke for 16.80. There were like 16 slices in all... and when we were all EXTREMELY full, we still had 2 slices left... haha! In s'pore a meal like tt would've easily cost us more than 40 bucks liao... oh! and the pizza has super a lot of MEAT n cheese... the shredded ham n bacon layer was like 1cm thick all over the dough!! totally unlike the one in S'pore!