The doggie magic

I'm keeping track of patients' urine output twice a day and making sure that that they are not too concentrated, and I've been having concentrated urine for almost a week.

I'm trying to drink more every day but every time I have the time to take a big gulp, it's like like 5-6 hours lapsed my last drink.

Yesterday was post-call. But I managed an amazing 3 hours of undisturbed sleep during my call! All the oncall admissions came at reasonably decent times, and none were critically ill. And I had my fav MO oncall with me. Fav because he's the most reliable, and he would give clear and detailed instructions, no ambiguity and room for guessing games, and he would come to see the patient very quickly if I raise the red flag. And he covered me several times when there were some ambiguity on my part.

And secondly, he let me play with his doggies! :) Yes, yesterday, post-call, I had my buddy Wendy chaffeur me around KK looking for a pet shop to get some rawhid for the doggies. He has one adult rotweiller, three 7-month-old roitwellers (which were the same size as the adult one) and 1 dalmatian! They were so cute! But they were terribly rough and after only 20mins of palying with them, I was dead tired, and I was drenched with doggie saliva, paw prints on my clothings, scratches everywhere, and a very heavy heart.

I miss my deary Pheobe at home!

To remedy that, I officiated the swimming pool at my apartment complex with a midnight swim last night! :) I had Wendy sitting poolside watching my stuff, and keeping eye on peverts. Nolah. :) It was dark, no lights, so I don't think anyone saw.

Even if anyone did, nothing la also. Initially I was told that it would be quite "strange" to swim in the apartment complex pool because half the population there are hospital staff; specialists, MOs and other interns.

But I figured that if I was sniffing glue or having public sex, then I should worry. Swimming shouldn't be problem. I know it's Malaysia, but swimming is not immoral

"There goes that immoral intern again. How could she swim in the pool?!"

I imagine them lamenting.

Besides, I can't drive 12km everyday to Likas Sports Centre, where there's a gorgeous, gorgeous pool, but a yucky yucky toilet, and showers with no place to hang anything.

I'm thinking of playing with my MO's dogs again, today, but I don't want him to find me irritating. Let me work up the courage later to ask whether I could go to his place and play with his dogs again. He doesn't need to be at home mah. His maid knows me and can let me just play with the dogs at the backyard.

I hung out with Wendy yesterday and I felt very happy, despite she being a little down these couple of weeks. There's something just genuinely nice and sincere about her. She'll tell me anything, answer any of my stupid questions.

I was asking her whether she thought I was weird, because some of my colleagues in my ward commented that I was weird. She said no lar. Maybe a little wacky at times. I just like to think that I'm a little expressive. But I behave appropriately with time and situation.

And I notice sometimes people laugh with the things I say eventhough I did not mean for the things to be funny.

Funny.

On a happier note, Dr. V came to the ward the other day for rounds with the consultant. I caught him looking at me. I was hidden behind the nurses' counter, writing a referral letter. Then later half-way though the rounds, he came to the counter and stood behind me. He was flipping through the stuff around me, looking for paper.

"Hi Sharon. How are doing?"

"I'm fine Dr. V, thank you. How are you?" I couldn't help beaming I think.

"I'm good, I'm good."

My other colleagues looked suspiciously at my red face. Shit. Cover up, cover up. Continue writing referral letter.

One of my colleagues later said, "Why look for paper all the way here? Get la the nurses to get him some..."

I didn't care. The stupid paper just made my day. :)

I'm craving for Indian food now la. And I want a large glass of Mango lassi. Yummy!

I need to enjoy my Sunday before tomorrow. Hope you guys enjoy yours too! Cheers!

Pictures from home!

Decided to use my internet time to send a long email to my parents. They sent me these 2 pictures. :) The cat is a stray they stumbled upon at a traffic light. My dad picked him up and now he's adopted by my aunt, and now he's called Bruce. What an ugly little thing, but I love his sattelite dish ears!! Cute!!



























That's my new car in Kuching! I'm now driving my parents' old Wira in KK. But it's cool because I'm just so used to that old thing. But I'm turning into a KK driver! Aiks.

I just came from the Likas Sports centre after a miserable 15 laps swim. I was cramping quite badly so I decided to go slow. But it did lift some of that heaviness that I've been carrying around for the last couple of days. I wish that the sports centre wasn't so far away. I can't wait for the pool in my condo to get serviced soon. It's been out of comission for the last 2 weeks.

The 12-year-old girl is doing well. The lady with haematuria is still bleeding, but markedly less. I just sent a lady with TB lymphadenopathy home this morning, with still an ascitic abdomen. I just sutured her peritoneal tap site and sent her home to Pitas, some 3-4 hours from KK, and hoped that she would continue her anti-TB treatment in her district hospital and not default her appointment with us in 2 months time.

And it's about time I leant to scrub tomorrow. After 5 weeks as an intern in surgery, I've not been inside the OT yet! It's just crazy in the wards and the clinics, but I think it's about time I start with OT.

My next call in Friday, with the infamous Chainsaw surgeon, which is worth not even a paragraph of my blog, except that her existence in my lifetime is God's trial for me.

Ok, keying off. Want to look for some more food. Which reminds me. In another post I want to talk about my housemate, the girl who does not have a stomach.

Cheers!

Insignificant middle man

I had a bad call yesterday. Didn't get even a minute of sleep. And I had only 3 critical patients.

One was a 12-year-old girl with a thrombus (blood clot) in her left leg, and she was in agonizing pain the whole day yesterday. The first surgical team that saw her planned that she was to be heparinized (blood-thinning therapy to dissolve the clot) for a day and if that didn't work, they were to proceed with surgery.

So I was the intern to monitor her heparin infusion, and take her blood every 2 hours to check for clotting time. And the poor girl was very uncooperative because she's been poked too, too many times. A skinny, scrawny girl with a failing heart on top of her blood clot in her left leg.

That was fine because she became my main focus the whole day.

The second surgical team came in at 10pm at night and was very unhappy with the plan of management.

"What the hell are you guys doing with this patient?" He yelled at me.

I was a little taken aback, because as far as I know, I'm just following the surgeon's plan. So I explained what the other surgeon ordered.

"I'm not angry with you Sharon, but seriously, what are you guys doing with this girl?"

So his team changed the management and went agressive with heparinization. So I had to switch mode and set a new target for the patient.

But guess what? the following morning (this morning), the first team that saw her took a look at the plan drawn out by the team from last night, and thought that it was not good enough, and changed it again. Fuck. I seriously don't care what they think is best, or which school of thoughts they follow. Just do right by the patient. Fucking assholes la.

But for now that's not my problem. I've handed it over to the intern oncall today. Poor girl. I just will follow up on her tomorrow morning.

Then when all the other interns who were not on call left for the day, the Urology (study of the urinary system) team handed over a lady with blood in her urine. She was not bleeding as heavily when they were around... but when they left, she started to bleed very heavily, the bottle that was collecting her flushed bladder was turbid with blood. And the staff nurse alerted me that the patient complained of diziness. So I assessed her, and she was tachycardic, and very pale.

Shit. I quickly went through her notes and noted that she was already tranfused 5 pines of packed cells in a district hospital before she was transfered to Queen Elizabeth.

I quickly took her blood for Hb level and to cross match some blood because I knew she had to be transfused. The irrigation that she was on was not stopping her bleeding, somewhere in her urinary tract, the Urology team still hadn't got a clue what her problem was.

I called to inform my MO, and he sort of dismissed me as a little over-reacting, even laughing a little when I toild him that I cross-matched 5 pines of packed cells. (Her Hb level in the District Hospital dropped to 4.0! So I don't think I was being over-reacting) He came only like 5 hours later. And when he finally saw the patient, he was upset with me. He said,

"Sharon, the patient's not doing well. She's tachycardic. Transfuse her tonight. You should have done something for her earlier" (It was already 3am when he came). I guess he was also a little panicky because he had to answer to the Urologist come morning if anything had happened to the patient.

Like fucking what?! I can't just transfuse her without the green light from my MO, especially when she's already been transfused so much for the last 3 days. My MO could have come earlier when I called him to assess the patient, so something could have been done earlier.

But anyways, I suspect if I had transfused her without the ok from my MO, I wouldn't have been praised either.

But it's all for the patient, I keep reminding myself. Do right by the patient. I feel better already just thinking about that.

The other consolation. My MO was a hot one. :) So when he was lecturing me, I just concentrated on his facial features. Yummy. Muahahahah!

The 3rd patient was a case of interstinal obstruction. I have managed a few since I started working, so I was not so worried about her. But it was the timing I guess. Came in around 3.30am. Had to run around getting her worked up to rpepare her for emergency surgery.

It's tough because I needed to make sure that the heparin infusion for the 12-year-old was given acurately and on time because we were puzzled as to why she remained unanti-coagulated fro 12 hours despite continuous infusion and a few boluses. The nursing staff are nice, but they don't have the concept of how certain things are urgent and some of critical. To them, extra work means extra work.

My surgeon would be calling me several times through the night to ask me trace her results and asking me to make adjustments to her heparin doses. and Then finish each call by saying, "Sharon, go get some rest."

??? How ? It's the thought that counts.

---

So post-call luckily today is public holiday so I had the afternoon off after morning work is done. Got home, slept couple of hours, and then wanted to swim. The condo pool was being serviced, so can't swim there. Drove 12km to Likas Sports Centre to swim, it's closed. I forgot, it's Monday. Shit. Close tomorrow also. Wednesday then la.

And I'm oncall coming Friday. Luckily. I can't face another oncall if it had been sooner. Last week was oncall every other day. So fortunately this week only 2 days.

So since I can't destress with swimming, I drove to this internet cafe just to destress. :) And it's working, thank God.

Now hungry. Want to eat Japanese, Italian and McD. How? And I want to pee but I wearing my swim suit under, a bit hard to pee.

Other than work, I'm perfectly fine. My left toe reminds me constantly that I need to slow down. And I want to learn to be more relaxed. I don't actually feel panicky, but I get people telling me to relax, to chill. Is it my face ang\d my actions, or is it just how panicky feels like?

Other better key off now. It starts getting dark around 6.30 freaking pm here in KK. I need to find food.

Week 4

I just couldn't wait to leave the ward this morning. I had so many things planned out for today, but all went down the drain. I wanted to get my Streamyx thingy done in my apartment, and I promised a friend to chauffer her around to get her car purchase done, and I was supposed to go for a pinic with my colleagues in the afternoon. Nada. Everything had to be canceled because as a doctor, my life is second to my work.

I may sound whiny and all but there's a tinge of pride with that. Who in their freaking sane minds would be so dumb to study so many years and then spend the prime time of their lives working their butts off like there's nothing else in the world to do?

I attended my first department meeting yesterday afternoon. No, no... it's not all formality and blood donation drives or suturing workshop (because surgery mah)... instead, it's interns revert back into medical students time.

I'm in the "department of fines", I quote my head of department. Write trade name of drugs, fine RM1. Don't write duration of drug, fine RM1. Don't check resuscitation trolley, fine RM5. Take extra blood and store in the refrigerator, fine RM10 each bottle, but if nobody owns up, each intern gets fine RM1. And I think there are about 30 of us.

We are so busy running around getting ward work done (blood taking, getting appointments for some imaging studies, tracing investigation results, etc.). But on Fridays we have to attend CME in the morning, intern lecture at 10am, then grand rounds at 11am, then in the afternoon at 2pm, some histopathology conference or every once a month, department meeting.

How to get work in the wards done when we have to run around attending this and that? And later when it's time for ward rounds with the specialists, there's just something that's just left out or undone. And we get the whacking.

Not that I'm complaining. I just figure that common sense tells us that interns are humans? Not robots?

Middle of this week I had the most denerving experience. A 45-year-old breast cancer survivor arrived from Labuan with jaundice and in respiratory distress. Her abdomen was grossly distended because of ascites. I volunteered to clerk (meaning to take history and work her up) because I thought it would more comfortable for her that I examine her since I'm the only female intern of the 3 interns in my unit.

That was the take off point of a series of unfortunate events for me.

First, she was the first seriously ill patient I've ever processed in the ward. I was trying to get the nurses to help get her oxygen in place, set IV access and propped up, but apparently no one noticed that she was very ill, and took their time to make her comfortable. I was very upset because I was thinking that they were being very neglectful, and that they were not taking my orders seriously.

Then my most senior specialist came an hour later, took a look at her and immediately concluded that she had recurrent breast cancer with metastasis. She was unhappy with me that the patient was not on oxygen up and there was still no IV access. I was so tempted to rat on the nurses, but I figured that they would see that I'm covering for them and that they owe me one.

I seriously need to earn my respect quick. I can't function properly without the nursing staff behind me.

And she immediately explained the prognosis to the relatives of the patient. They looked very upset, and were starting to make arrangements to bring her home for palliative management.

Then later in the afternoon, my MO came and did a bedside ultrasound for her and said that her jaundice was caused by stone in her biliary tree, and that there's treatment for that.

The relatives were confused. But I guess their spirits picked up regardless.

Then my specialist came again late evening and told them to discuss among themselves to bring her sister back to Labuan.

They were even more confused at this juncture.

You see they (specialists and MOs) are not always in the wards. Only the interns, so the relatives would asking me lots and lots of questions. It came to a point that the patient's 3 really big and really hooligan-looking brothers were confronting me, making demands for explanation of their sister's actual condition and whether the hospital could provide oxygen for her journey back to Labuan.

I had to do my best to explain that the patient had double pathology. She had advance cancer, complicated with obstructive jaundice secondary to biliary stone. And because of that, there's no point of putting her through the treatment for the stone. And that when they signed the AOR letter (At Own Risk) letter, the hospital is free from anything that might happen to the patient on the journey back.

One of the brothers actually demanded that I write a letter to say that the patient does not require oxygen for the journey.

"Saya tidak mahu berdosa bila saya buka oxygen dia".

He said something like that.

I calmly (not very calm also la) told him that we don't have to go to that extend. His sister's condition was grave and terminal. The oxygen doesn't keep her going. It's just to make her more comfortable.

Ok, I guess the relatives were not the most difficult bit. My specialist and MO would create all the mess, but I have to do all the cleaning up.

They would disappear and ask me to "talk" to the relatives through the phone. I was even asked to literally see to that they leave the hospital immediately after they sign the AOR letter, which I didn't. They patient was a huge lady, way over 100kg, so it's really difficult to transport her, so the relatives appealed to ME to let them stay until they could arrange a way to transport her.

I didn't have any authority to let them stay but I said ok anyways, so the following day I got a scolding from my MO (whom by the way didn't even say anything to the relatives when he did his rounds in the morning)... I was wasting government money. I shouldn't have allowed them to stay because they signed the AOR letter. Bla. Bla. Bla.

Then I did the weirdest thing. All his scolding just became very airy and diluted when they reached my ears. I suddenly exclaimed, "Dr. W, do you have dogs?"

Dr. W stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide open, and replied, "Yes, I do. " and continued scolding me.

But I was happy.

Later that evening after everything, he promised to let me play with his dogs soon. :)

The patient expired 8.40pm last night, her 3rd day in the ward. May she rest in peace.

But that same night I was oncall, and I was called my the nurse at the Burns Unit. A Filipino lady came in with 90% 3rd degree burns, and DIL (Death in Line) and DNR (Do not resuscitate) were issued the day before because of her grave condition. Her relatives just arrived from KL were making a fuss in the ward, nad the nurses felt physically threatened.

Shit. I'm strong and all, but a group of angry relatives?

I had to run up, as the unfortunate oncall intern. I sat the most dominant sister down and asked her why she was so upset. She claimed that her sister were not getting "medicines" and they was some prejudice going on, since they were Filipinos.

I was shocked. But I proceeded to explain the management of burns and what DIL and DNR were. She understood. About the racial discrimination, I won't lie to her, it's everywhere. But I assured her that her sister was getting the appropriate treatment, all according to protocol. That much I can assure her. There were no "medicines" to treat her sister's burns.

I guess she was a little surprise with my frankness. But they were calm the whole evening until the patient expired later in the night. She was the first death I pronouced in my career.

Sure I was nervous. What if she didn't really die? But no spontaneous breathing, pupils fixed and dilated, cardiac monitor showed asystole. She's dead. And the nurse nudged me to say a few words to the grieving relatives.

"It's confirmed doctor? She's really gone?"

"Yes, I'm sorry." That's all I can say.

---

On lighter note, I'm learning to get over my little crush for Dr. V. But I'm always still so elated to see him whenever he comes around to the ward.

A friend spotted him having dinner with his wife, and I questioned her 101. Were they sitting side-by-side? Were talking and laughing a lot? How did his wife look like? Was she pretty? Did he touch her a lot? Were they in love?

My friends thought I was crazy. But I just had to know.

---

Ok, better key off here. Need some retail therapy. I'm oncall tomorrow. Yes, Sunday.

Cheers!

It's tough, but I'm happy.

I'm alive and well here in KK.

Hey, I really, really miss you guys!

I don't have my internet connection yet in my apartment, so now I'm in an internet cafe in Centre Point, one the more happening malls in KK.

So many things happened in my 3 weeks here, but I guess what I care to share are those things that affected me the most.

I want to believe that I'm changed, and humbled by my very traumatic first 3 weeks as a medical intern.

Had my very first call (on-call means working 8am through the night until the next day 5pm) early this last week and my 2nd last Friday. Scary because I'm all alone manning the male surgical ward of about 40 patients, and currently I'm famous for being the "hottest" intern so far. 6 admissions on my call and 4 of them ended up on the operation table the same night. Didn't sit down the whole night, and needless to say, I didn't even sleep for a minute.

One came in with an apparent infected drain site from a previous laparatomy, so I was asked by my MO (Medical Officer) to just off the suture... and guess what, some 40ml of faecal material burst out and I had to quickly collect it in a sterile bottle as proof, just in case my MO thought I was cracking under pressure. Faecal peritonitis is really, really bad news.

One 21-year-old got admitted around 3am for acute abdomen. But on further examination, we suspected him to have infective endocarditis, and was in heart failure. So I was asked to take blood for culture 3 times, half an hour apart, from 3 different sites, 4am, 4.30am and then 5am. But after the first blood-taking, my patient disappeared into the hollow corridors of Queen Elizabeth Hospital. I was so afraid that he might just collapse somewhere in the very desserted hospital compound so I went looking for him. Nada.

Around 9am after my morning rounds I called the ward and found out that the patient made his way, on foot, back home, and refused to go for any treatment. Aiks. Is it because I gave him the green needle? It's faster mah. If I give him the blue needle, even though smaller, and apparently less painful, I have to poke him longer mah.

When I started, I had 2 weeks of tagging, which was a really tough period for me. 6.30am to 10pm, 7 days a week. Tagging means that I tag onto a more senior intern and follow him/her around and observe the trade. So I was very lucky to get a really, really nice tagee... a great teacher too. Let me do all the procedures, and he had this really great calmness in his voice and his actions... so I never felt nervous manouvering a chest tube and inserting a CVP line.

But now I'm in a new ward, no more tagee, and no more tagging, meaning real responsibilities. Whatever I write in the patients' files and whatever I write in the drug chart, they matter. So it's all very denerving at times.

My other friends who came with me to KK was constantly sharing their burdens with me, so I guess that helps because I don't feel so alone. And true to my true self, I managed to find myself a crush in my 2 weeks of tagging, a young surgeon, who became the main reason how I could drag my body out of bed every morning to make in to the wards before 6.30am every morning.

But later, after my tagging I found out from an unreliable sorce, that he might already be married. So I decided that I couldn't live with uncertainties, and I couldn't ask him directly whether he was married or not, so now I'm slowly weaning off him, so now I'm in another ward, and I don't get to see him that often anymore. It's really hard.

My friends were asking me to scout among my fellow interns... but I can't la. I like older men, period. Hehe. And I want to find a guy with doggies, so I can play with them. :)

And the ther day, this really mean MO from Medical Department made me cry. Sounds silly but he was merciless. It was my first time referring a case, and it was another senior HO who asked me to refer his case. So the MO grilled me on the case and later wrote nasty thing about me about being rude for not reviewing the case before refering it to him and wrote my name in bold and caps in the patient's file. He even misquoted me, but in the end my tagee said to just suck it in, and move on. Many more shitty times to come.

I get. So I move on.

Another thing I still struggling to get usedto is being called Dr. Sharon.

I'm staying at this really nice apartment complex with 2 other friends, fully furnished, with a washing machine, thank God. So now I'm quite happy and all eventhough I feel I don't have much life other than my life as an intern.

I have just, yes, after 3 weeks, made my way, alone, and quite courageously too, to the Likas Sports Complex to check out the indoor swimming pool. It's gorgeous. Will be going there this evening! Yipee! I'm sure I'll be feeling more confident too now in my suit now that I've shed off a couple of kilos since I started working. :)

Courageous I said because it's really confusing to drive here in KK, and now with all the construction going on with the new flyover. Oh ya, my parents sent over the old car to KK, and my new Myvi is in Kuching! :)The other day when we were moving to our new apartment, I got lost and ended driving over 50km around KK, only finally reaching our intended destination after we asked for direction in an abandoned road. Aiks. And by the way, KK drivers suck! Big time!

Excuse me for my lack of structure in this post. I need to key off for now. Have a buy a couple of things for the apartment. Will get internet access soon. Till then, take care people. I really miss you guys!

Last post before I start a new chapter

Will definitely miss blogging lots, especially you guys (if you think you one of them, good for you!) :p

Tied up some loose ends these 2 days. The only thing I didn't manage to do was to visit my dearest and oldest friend in the world, Jojo. And when she sent me a parting gift the other day, I was out on an errand. THANKS JO! See you soon!

I've reduced my things to 2 suitcases. Milestone. :) Will have parents courier the rest over, if necessary, or mum will bring over if she visits next time.

I effectively reduced my whole life into 2 suitcases. But still bringing ALL my earrings! :)

Till I settle down and find time to blog again, take care you all! Won't be replying the comments in previous posts ya.

Some last pictures:



An unidentified orchid species in the church compound.



Finally collected the family portraits from the studio. Album will only be done 5OCT. Sucks.



Will miss Pheobe... Been spending lots of time with her these couple of days...



Damn sure will miss Sarawak laksa...


A bientot!

Some more...

glass pebbles, originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

I wear these quite often to class and to the wards. The green pair is my fav of the 2!

From my Inbox: In memory of Steve Irwin

Food Fair

preparation, originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

Spent the whole day helping mum to cook beef curry for tomorrow church food fair. 4 kilo of beef topside and 30 potatoes! No joke man! Stirring the curry in such a huge pot gave me a really good workout!

St. Peter's Church Parish Food Fair
17 SEPT. 2006
7.30AM-1.30PM

There will be about 80 stalls selling all sorts of food and goodies! All are welcome!

I got these at the Sunday Market!

black butterflies, originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

Pretty huh? Got these for like RM3/- at the Satok weekend market! It's all plastic, babe! But wear it at night, can't see the plastic finishing... eheheheh...

I'll miss Kuching food the most

'chau chai hunan' & 'tian pian hu', originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

Ok la this 2 food items are originally from Sibu, but they are also found wherever foochows dwell, including Kuching. :) These 2 pics were taken at Sin Poh Poh coffee shop at Ban Hock Road here in Kuching.

The chau chai hunan is obviously the dry (fried) variety, but I think the original variety is the wet (soup) one, which I actually prefer, but so happen I was eating the fried one when taking pic.

The tian pian hun is a soupy dish. Note my fav black fungus! The whitish thing is like the kueh in our kueh chap.

Both dish have the signature ingredient of kim chan, or dried lily bulbs which have a nice frangrance and sourish taste. Yummy!

I had my bowl of authentic kuching laksa this morning! Thinking of having kolo mee tomorrow! :)

My first facial

Went for my first facial today. Never ever been for one before because I didn't belive in its concept, and I'm not a fan of people poking my face. But it's something mum wanted to do together with me, so I figured okla since I'm leaving soon... some quality time with her was in order.

When the beautician saw my wretched face, she looked like she was on a mission! And she was distressed when I told her that I can't join one of her regime that she recommended because I'm leaving Tuesday. So she insisted that I come back on Sunday, no extra charge, for a follow up.

I don't exactly have acne problem, but I have terribly oily skin with yucky blackheads that look like that coalesced together!

I was embarassed because it took the beautician about an hour just to remove my blackheads! *shy* Then I had this really nice seaweed masque which was really soothing and I think I even dozed off. :)

Oh ya, before the masque, she did peeling and gave me a face massage, and some laser treatment to promote lymphatic drainage. But I was most impressed when she actually delineated my lymph vessel under my right mandible which was blocked. It even felt kinda gritty. She tracked it and massaged passed an enlarged submandibular node. It brought new meaning to lymph node palpation for me because I never palpate that hard and that deeply... so now that I know that it doesn't hurt to palpate that hard, then next time I would palpate that way la, so won't miss any enlargement.

Yay! Learnt something today.

But the head and shoulder massage was damn painful la. I'm sure I have a bruise over my shoulder blades. Will check on the mirror tonight. But I was thinking that it was me, Sharon Chin, superwoman, who's frequently accused of being a masochist, thinking that the massage was painful... and about what women would put themselves through in the name of beauty!

It was even 5 times more painful than when I was getting my tattoo!

Okla, how do I feel after the facial? Definitely more relaxed. Great therapy. Feel like a thick heavy layer was lifted off my face. Backhead density reduced. Face a little more radiant lo. Don't know la, still not very convinced with its benefits... but would go for it anytime just for relaxation... and if complexion improves, it's an extra! :) But it was a little too long... 2 and a half hours!

Cost. Package with mum... about RM150 each, then I bought a set of facial cleanser, toner, some gels... 5 bottles all together for RM155... which would last me about 2 months.

The beautician was explaining to me how to use the product, and even showing me how to use the cotton pad and the direction of application, and I must have looked a bit confused/disturbed/skeptical... so my mum suddenly told her to not mind me... and that I was very "simple".

"Aiyah, you have to explain to her properly because she never used this sort of things. She very simple one."

Then she went on and on about me not bothered to take care of my skin lo, and that I swim too much lo (the beautician gasped!), and spent too much time under the sun lo... :D

Whatever la.

And no make-up for me, she insisted. Actually happy to hear that. So now I have a reason (at least a reason, though not a good one) not to wear la without feeling that guilty for subjecting people to my unmade face. No choice mah.

And she kept on reminding me before we left, "Koolat-koolat sei bin yong he ley cleanser hah.." (direct translation: hardworking hardworking wash face with that cleaser hah)

Yes, I will try. I want to have nice skin for once. :)

Updates

IMG_3846, originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

These were from Angie for my graduation! Thanks Gie! She was a little disturbed before giving me the present because she realized (after we didn't see each other quite a while) that I was into BIG earrings. But in fact I wear them quite often because they are simple and elegant... and I'll be wearing them for work. :)
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Ok. Short post. Very tired today. Did most of everything I planned yesterday except timing a bit upseted because system down in the morning at immigration. But everything settled.

Collecting tickets (mind and 3 other friends') tomorrow. Leaving 9am Tuesday. Opened Maybank account. Called KK to arrange our hostel. People were very nice even though I ended speaking like an Indonesian. :)

But I managed to go for a swim today! 20 laps. Water was freezing today. My extremities felt numb half-way the swim. Felt a little panicky. Sympathetic system.

Have to key off now. Going to visit LEON the cat again for the last time before I leave. Tomorrow visiting SUCRE the puppy.

Will visit your blogs soon! Cheers!

Mixed feelings

i'm a neat freak, originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

So I received my posting letter around 11.30am. Yup Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu. Of course I'm estatic, but it just dawned on me how much I have to settle before I leave next week. I can't figure out all the forms they sent me.

My bags are kinda packed, but it's too heavy. I can just pull the bag up in one jerky motion, about a few cm off the ground. Then it falls back like a boulder. I may have to take out everything, for the 4th time, take out some and rearrange them again.

Met 2 other colleagues who got KK in the afternoon to make some arrangement. I'll be booking our seats Tuesday next week. Very happy to have some friends along.

Then tomorrow I need to renew my passport (dad said better to renew even though I don't need a passport for KK, just in case I need to travel next time), then open an account with Maybank, and close with stupid RHB, call the hospital to arrange our hostel and decide whether to send my books and other heavy things by cargo or just everything on my flight.

Decisions, decisions.

And the forms... I had to read and reread all of them just now, and I'm still a little confused. Anyways, I'll just make copies of all of them just to be safe.

So disturbed that my sis asked for my room just now. No way man. Siaw.

And the worst part part just now I was told that we don't usually get our 1st pay until after 3 months of working. That sucks.

But the up side was that we'll be getting more than I thought initially... we got clothing allowance and elaun persekutuan... :)

And I was thinking a little about the future of my blog.

Ok. Stop here. Sleepy already.

So many pairs, so little time...

silver leaves, originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

nice eh? :)

ANNOUNCEMENT

ME IS GOING TO KK! :D

Blue day

Today we remember the 2973 (figure source) who lost their lives in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, the hijacked plane that crashed at Shanksville and the Pentagon.

5 years after the attack, I can still remember very vividly what I was doing when I heard about the attack on the World Trade Centre.

I was in my 1st year of medical studies, and was staying in campus. I was having an afternoon lecture and some of my guy colleagues asked us the girls to watch the news wherever we could find a telly as soon as possible.

Something big had happened.

I and my girlfriends rushed back to the common hall in the girls' hostel and sat in the jam-packed room to watch our local news coverage on the jumpy 21-inch telly.

The boys rushed to the study rooms in the faculty to go online to see the coverage.

It felt like watching some sci-fi war movie when I saw the 1st plane hit the tower. Goosebumps all over my body once I realized the enormity of the situation.

We continued to get updates from the boys who camped out at the study rooms (for internet connection) that night through sms.

Shock was my predominant feeling at that time... it was only during the weekend, when I got home and got to watch CNN's coverage, and when I found out about the 300 firemen who died when they rushed into the tower, that I felt like humanity was lost and unsalvageable.

Our generation will never truly recover from 9/11. Just like how the generation of the Holocaust and many generations after could never recover from that dark chapter of human history.
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And as if Mother Nature was weeping and cursing at the senseless loss of lives, it's been a rainy and grey day here in Kuching today, with mid-afternoon lightning and thunder.

So needless to say, no swimming for me today. :(

And no letter, still, today. :(

But I do have my little blue collection to cheer me up. :)

Sucre is sweet!

2 weeks ago, a stray puppy made his way into my aunty's place at 3rd mile area, and after much deliberation, the whole family decided to adopt him. And my cousins named him Sucre, which means sugar in French! It's a really cute name, except that my uncles were complaining that it's kinda difficult to pronouce, so now Sucre's sometimes called plain Brownie. And I hope the other dogs in the neighbourhood wouldn't tease him about his very pompous-sounding name! :)


And he was playing with a football which was bigger than him last night! So absolutely adorable! I was so excited that I forgot to snap him playing! :)
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Last night there was a pre-sale (for the coming fund-raiser next weekend) at my church... and they were selling apple pies, among other items! Heaven!



Have requested dad to order one more next weekend! :) Try it with vanilla ice-cream!
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Absolutely surprised but delighted that Sharapova's won the women's US Open title! Getting bored of seeing Henin-Hardenne, so quite happy that beauty and brawn prevailing over wit, for once. Don't shoot me, don't shoot.

I kinda feel sorry for Sharapova who's only 19 (but already won a Wimbledon at 17) because of her popularity more for her beauty and model physique than for her talents.

So what if she's winning now because she's hitting harder than her opponents? She's a freaking teenager. She'll pick up flare and strategy-intelligence with time.

So I'm all ready for the men's singles tomorrow 4am! No surprise of the Federer-Roddick match-up.
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To round up an absolutely (ok, used this word thrice already this post) great weekend, here's another pair of my precious from my collection. Honestly I haven't worn them because when I tried, they looked kinda dressy for my usual laidback lycra top and denim skirt/jeans.



Have a great Sunday!

Breakfast

I'm so lucky to be born in this lifetime. A lifetime when I can just wake up in the morning and drive to the nearest coffee shop for my favourite siow bee with black fungus.

A most delicate delicacy! Had been having these for ages, but never had I given it much thought!

Just found out online that the black fungus is locally known as kuping tikus and cendawan telinga kera. Also I just found out that siow bee is siu mai. I'll use siow bee eventhough when you google it you get "0" results, unlike siu mai where you get results in hundreds it's probably called that only in Kuching. Because it's my blog. :)

2 days

So tempted to curse and swear rant, but heck, I've lost the steam already, so I'm just going to summarize what happened the last 2 days:

I couldn't open my Yahoo! mail, couldn't log on to Blogger (beta) and my Streamyx broadband connection was unstable. So silly me made the amateur mistake of not copy and paste my text before posting comments and saving my posts! :( Dida and Davi did this question thingy which I found interesting and which I answered all 11 freaking questions, and the whole page just went offline on me, and hence my almost one-hour worth of post was lost, forever... couldn't even recover the post. :(

No chance of me redoing the questions.

The worst part was that I could have prevented it.

And I have been crying and sobbing periodically over the last 2 days because of the reruns of Steve Irwin's shows! I'm not sure why but I'm so affected by his untimely death. I was crying and crying watching especially the segments on his children and all his conservation programmes... and even the segment on his late doggie, Sui. It's like something really blunt piercing my heart through and through.

I really can't believe that he's dead. It's just so not right.

The last time I cried like this was 5 months back when the vet told us that my very blind 16-year-old mongrel, Stryker, was dying of heart failure. I never prayed so hard in my life. Stryker was coughing really badly... and for a couple of weeks he seemed to be going downhill... but guess what? Today, 5 months later, his cough is gone, and he's still eating well, and very happy I must add. But I know I must prepare myself for the innevitable, his heart may decompensate anytime.

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On a lighter note, news from a colleague who called the Health Ministry again, enquiring about our posting... they sent out our letters on Thursday (yesterday la) which means we should we getting them soon. And now they're saying we start on the 18th of this month.

If that's true, my destiny is sealed in an envelope somewhere, together with thousands and thousands of other letters.

But until I see the little bugger, I'm not buying the news.

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Yesterday I had a craving for Foochow food. So I had "tian pian hu" for breakfast, and then I went to the 20% Discount Store at Jalan Keretapi (because Adeline told me there's a small shop inside that sells "kompiah"!) and bought 1 packet of 5 pieces of baby "kompiah" with sesame seeds, and another packet of 4 pieces of big plain "kompiah".

There's only one left in the fridge now. The other seven pieces, erm, I ate them all myself! *shy* Had them for lunch yesterday and breakfast this morning! :) So happy!

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Been sleeping 3/4am for the last week or so watching the US Open. The biggest news so far is that Nadal is out! Because he's the only one with the real potential to defeat Federer in the final, so that's why it's news. :)

Larry King asked Andre Agassi who he thought would win the 2006 US Open.

"Umm... that would be Federer, or the guy who beats him. " :)

I watched the Federer-Blake match this morning which of course Federer cruised through. So disgusted with the american crowd/audience in centre court! Cheering when Federer double-faulted or netting the ball??? I know la Blake's from NY... but please show some class ok? Tennis' a classy sport! Gentlemen's sport, remember???

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So to cheer myself up, also cheer you guys up, here's another pair of earrings from my collection! This is a delicate pair, and I usually have to tie my hair up to wear them because it's black (cannot see with hair down) and it's so light and can easily get tangled with my hair.

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And here's a meme I copied off Savante's. It's simple, but I thought it's nice because I get to know the people who do the meme a little better. So here:

3 fav local food
(1) Sarawak laksa!
(2) "Siow bee" with black fungus
(3) "Chau chai hu nan"

3 fav beverages
(1) Coffee
(2) Banana smoothie
(3) Ice lemon tea

3 fav items on McD
(1) Sundae!!!
(2) Double-cheese burger
(3) French fries

3 fav colours
(1) White
(2) Black
(3) Blue

3 dream jobs
(1) Journalist
(2) Photographer
(3) CSI

3 animals I like most
(1) Dog
(2) Cat
(3) Turtle

3 places I must visit in my life
(1) Any one of Africa's national parks for a safari
(2) Attend a finals match at Wimbledon
(3) Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo

3 wishes in life
(1) To have complete and profound happiness!
(2) To be superb and indispensible in my job! :)
(3) To compete in a triathlon!

3 types of people I hate the most
(1) Indecisive
(2) Kiasu
(3) Cruel to animals

3 fav blogs
(1) One that's updated fairly regularly
(2) One that doesn't plagiarize
(3) One with a layout and font that are easy to read

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Ok people, thanks for bearing with me! Watch out for the women's semifinal matches tonight! Good night!