Happy New Year! 2008~~

Bond's wedding reception

I attended by first Chinese wedding reception last night..

Got the invitation from Bond a couple of months back, enough time for me to do some research., i.e. What to wear? How much money to give? What are the events planned for the night, etc.

Bond smsed me a few days ago, 'Please be at the Royal Lake Club at 7.30pm SHARP on 28/12/07." I panicked. I only finish work at 5plus, need at least one hour to drive back to Shah Alam. By the time I get ready, pick up Shobs from her aunt's place and drive to KL, the earliest I can get there would be 8pm. Later I discovered that Chinese weddings usually don't start on time..True enough, when I reach the place at 8pm, guests were still walking in and it only started at 8.30..

I would say that a Chinese wedding appears to be less formal than a Malay wedding. Some of the guests wore quite simple clothes, like just slacks and collared t-shirt. The MC was more spontaneous and bride and groom were very relaxed. After exchanging their vows, they also gave a speech, to thank their parents, family and friends in helping them with the wedding preparation. Another tradition that i noticed is that the wedding couple will go from table to table to take pictures with the guests. I think it's a good practice, as it'll ensure that they have pictures of all their guest as a keepsake.

The best thing that i witnessed at the wedding was a professional video show that they arranged for. It showed the whole wedding ceremony which started from 7.45am yesterday. From the groom and bride getting ready for the big day, right up to the groom going to bride's house...then we witnessed the groom getting 'ragged' by the girl's family..he had to wear a cardboard around his neck saying that he's getting married today and had to collect 15 signatures from the nearby mamak shop. Then he had to drink this green looking thing, which they blended from god knows what..it looked really horrible..i'm sure it tasted awful too..

Then he had a perform a dance for the girls family..After going to the girl's room to take his wife, they had to perform the tea ceremony...Later they showed both the wedding couple in the car, on the way to the club...

I was amazed with the video show as it showed the typical Chinese tradition of a wedding and the video was also well done..it managed to catch the expressions of the wedding couple and their family members..they both looked so happy..I noticed that the bride shed some tears after watching the video...I could just imagine being in her shoes, and I'll be touched as well myself..

Overall, I had a great time last night. It was fun meeting up with my old friends and catching up with them..

IMU Bunch

Good to c u again, Shobs..

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all..

Ketani Night

We had our annual family event at KSAS, Shah Alam last night. It is usually held on the 2nd or 3rd day of Hari Raya Puasa at KB but this year, we had it on Hari Raya Haji instead. Despite planning it the last minute, the event was a success.

We were lucky to get the room at the club, on Christmas Eve, as Dad knew the GM, who was his junior at Uni. I never knew that the room existed. It was initially a meeting room which was later converted to a function room. The space was just nice for us, after we made some rearrangements with the furniture..

Everybody had a great time, both the adults and kids. The opening act was a dance performance by the cousins, to the song 'Sway' by PussyCat Dolls. Then, we had a couple of karaoke sessions, by our uncles. In between, we played several games, organized by different cousins for each, which were participated by the uncles and aunties as well. The cousins also came up with several other performances like the Magic Show by Kujah, and dance by the cousins in primary school. The last dance that we had was poco-poco, which was improvised by us a couple of days ago. Our feet was already hurting by the end of the night.

The event ended at 1am. We were all reluctant to leave as we were having a good time. I could see that the staff from the club was anxious to clear the food as the night was getting late. After the adults left, we thought of having some karaoke session for ourselves. However, we could not find the remote control for the karaoke machine and the staff was also giving signals for us to leave the place. Hence, we decided to hang out and have supper at sect 7 instead. Later I discovered that the manager was having the remote all the while. Probably he did that on purpose.

The video camera was my best friend for the night.

Our theme 'Black, White and Gold'

Richard Clayderman at Arena Stars

My family and I took a drive up to Genting last night. You won't believe it when I tell you this, the last time I went to Genting was 16 years ago..It was also the first time Iwent on the cable car. I still remember, at that time my second youngest sibling was still a baby as he is now 17 years old!

Anyway, we originally planned to stay there for the night, but the hotels there were fully booked. However, we did bring extra clothes anyway, just in case people made last minute cancellations..

We arrived there just in time. Parked our car and took the cable car, as dad thought I'd be dangerous to drive up and especially down as it was raining. Bought the tickets and had dinner at the White Coffee Kopitiam. While having dinner, dad was busy surfing the net using his phone. Apparently they have free wifi at that coffee shop.

The performance was overall good. Richard played a mixture of oldies, chinese songs, soundtracks from Titanic and Harry Potter, as well as his famous songs like Ballade Pour Adeline and A Comme Amour. He gave out his music notes after each song and the audience in the VIP seats were waiting eagerly each time..

I managed to record parts of the songs that he played using my phone. I know it's illegal but heh, what the heck.

Check it out.

A Comme Amour-one of my favourite songs~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EucC4JlFu8A

P/S: We did not spend the night there in the end. The show ended at 9.45pm, so we decided it was still rather early to drive back home.

IMU Alumni

This post is actually long overdue..

I went for the first IMU alumni on the 9th of December recently..which was held at our Bukit Jalil campus.

I was initially reluctant to attend the event as I was not sure about the turn-out, but after putting a lot of thought into it, I decided to attend anyway, to show my support to the alumni.

My main goal was to get as many IMU graduates as possible from HTAR to attend gathering, but most of them were either on-call or had other plans that day. The only person that i managed to get was my good old friend Jason, so we went to the alumni together.

The entrance fee was RM 20 was I guess it was worth it as the food was awesome and we got a couple of door gifts i.e. an IMU keychain, pin and mug. Altogether there was only 4 people from our batch who came, including myself and Jason. Nevertheless, we had a good time chatting with them and the rest of the IMU Staff and super seniors.

The simple event ended at about 7 o'clock and i brought home a couple of helium filled balloons for my sister..Hope that I could attend the next alumni gathering next year..

World Marching Band Competition

I have not watched a live marching band performance for years..So I decided witness the world band competition last night with my dad, sister and brother.

I got to know about the event when I saw the booth at One Utama about 2 weeks back, but did not have the chance to surf the net to get to know more about it. It was only 2 days back when I realise that the finals was only a day away..

I initially asked my brother to get the tickets before hand, but my dad insisted that we get the tickets at the stadium that night..Thanks to my dad, we saved RM 1000 on tickets..here's how.

That night, we walked towards the entrance when the a crew of the event approached my dad and said "You're the VIP right? Let me show you the entrance." All of us were stunned but we played along. He brought us to the grand stand and ushered us to our seats. How lucky were we? :)

We thoroughly enjoyed the performance. We could see that the effort that they put in was tremendous..I recorded the impressive marching bands, planned to put it on Youtube but the file is just too large..

The show ended with a performance by Flop Poppy, the ambassador of the competition. Funny to see them wearing band uniforms..which was the same outfit as the cute mascots, i.e. Do Re and Mi.

Watching the whole performance made me think back the good old days that I had when we were performing for our school band. The team spirit was so strong and the friendships that we made was priceless. I don't think I'll ever have the same feeling again.

This is not the end, it's a new beginning

Today will be a memorable day for me, the day that finally stepped out from HTAR, for good, I hope.

The day started off pretty well, but i felt rather lonely in the afternoon as I spent my so called last lunch hour in Klang, alone. I took a drive to Tesco, and bought a tray of brownies from Secret Recipe for the ward, as a parting gift. My original plan was to buy 3 trays in total, but they only had 1 at that particular shop. I got the only tray that they had and Melanie bought another tray of brownies for me from the Shah Alam brach. Gave the brownies to the two wards that I've worked in before.

Saying goodbye, bidding farewell is just something that I dislike. Well, there is a probabily that I might be transferred back to this place, but leaving a familiar environment and the people whom you are comfortable with can be a emotionally painful. There were so many people who I wanted to meet before I left but I guess it's just not feasible to meet all of them. I said goodbye to the collegues that I bumped into, and took an extra effort to walk to the outpatient clinic to say thanks to my HOD before I left.

It's interesting to hear the things that people tell you when you are about the leave a place for God knows until when. The things that they advice you, the stories that they want to share, last minute questions that they want to ask, etc. You will speak to people that you tend to take for granted everyday, shook hands with a particular person for the first time and getting apologies from people who you never expect.

Just to share a few interesting events that happened today. I got a pat on the back from a specialist who was never close to me, my HOD telling me that I had a lot of potential and a phone operator who I never spoke to in person, wishing me luck just before I left the hospital. I have no idea how she knew that today was my last at HTAR..

Things will definitely change and again I have adjust myself to a new working environment. One thing that I'm going to miss about this place is the friendships that I've made. There are so valuable to me and I've met many wonderful people throughout my journey in my career.

All the best to me this Monday...A new beginning.

The Golen Compass

Thought that I'll be interesting to review a movie in my blog instead of just writing about myself..

Saw this movie on Sunday with a good friend of mine at Sunway Pyramid. I never read the book and I'm not a fan of fantasy stories anyway..Thought that it would be a good idea to watch the movie since it's such a big hype in the papers and internet.

The movie is adapted from the best selling novel with the same name (released in North America) as known as Northern Lights in other countries, written in 1995 by an English writer Philip Pullman as the first part of “His Dark Materials” trilogy - another two titles in the trilogy are The Subtle Knife (published in 1997) and The Amber Spyglass (published in 2000)

In my opinion the best part about the movie was Nicole Kidman. She potrayed the character of Ms Coulter magnificiently, being able to charm the main character Lyra in the initial part of the movie, and later became evil towards the middle. Despite being the villain in the story, she still maintained her elegance. I just love watching the dresses that she wore in the movie.

I was expecting more of Daniel Craig in the movie but he was only in a few short scenes...Probably there'll be more of him the in sequel..

Have you ever..

Have you ever felt that you are at the lowest point in life, wishing that it'll all just go away?

Have you ever wished that you could turn back time and hand pick a very eventful and happy memory and just dwell in that time..?

Have you ever been ridiculed by someone, until it breaks your spirit, and finding it so difficult to pull yourself up again?

Have you ever thought how life would have been if you had made a different decision earlier on?

Have you ever felt that one of your strongest characteristics is no longer there and is not helping you to push your self esteem anymore?

Have you ever been in a situation where you just want to stay in bed the whole day and not face anybody?

Have you ever felt so sick, not physically, but mentally until it's giving somatic symptoms?

Have you ever hated yourself for having all these negative thoughts, and hoping that someone will guide you to think in a different perspective?


Someone told me recently, 'You can never run away from your problems.-no matter where you are, where you work and who you work with. You just have to learn to face and deal with it.'

Sometimes it is easier said than done.

guy = girl

I just came back from my friend's birthday party at Holiday Villa-an event for her family and close friends.

My friend's family, being very open minded invited this group of transvestites to perform for her party. They were great dancers, much better than some girls that I've seen..My mind was wandering while watching them dance..

I felt sorry for them actually. They might be having some disorder like Klinifelter's Syndrome or just plain unlucky that they have gender confusion. Even though they were good entertainers, I felt that I should not cheer for them coz it's as though I was giving them encouragement. What they are doing is not morally right and by supporting them, were actually encouraging them to continue behaving that way.

They even perform lap dances to a few men who were unlucky, or lucky, I'm not quite sure..The fat and bald ones were picked and they had a taste of the transverstite's body on their face. I wonder what these guys were feeling at that point. They looked like they were having fun to me.

The worst was when they called up one of the guys on stage. Initially the guy was just dancing with them, and later one of the dancers grabbed his crotch! It was gross as it didn't happen once but 3 times with the same guy! I just didn't like what I saw.

I tried my best, but just can't enjoy watching performances by transvestites, especially if it directly involves the audience. They should just get other decent jobs instead.

Banting

I finally got a transfer to a district hospital. Banting Hospital...here I come..

It came as a shock to me initially. Was speechless and did not know how to react. I told the news to whoever that I bumped into at the hospital, hoping that they would knock some senses into me. After all, I was really unsure of what to do.
I decided to submit an appeal letter to the famous Datin Ang, the Pengarah of JKNS, who is known to be fierce, strict, and ignores appeal letters. I do not know anybody in the Health Ministry, so the appeal letter is my only hope.

At this point I'm actually unsure whether I really want to stay at HTAR. Not like I'm really happy there anyway. And Banting is not as bad as other district hospitals, like Tg Karang or Sabak Bernam...

I took a trip down to Banting today, hoping that I'll have a rough idea on how it's gonna be like working there. It's a nice small town, with plenty of fast food joints. They even have a McD drive- through there. Took me about 30 minutes from my current place of work, and the road was not that bad. But still, I can't imagine driving to the place everyday...it's gonna be quite tiring..

This coming week will be full of uncertainty for me..I have no faintest idea whether my appeal letter will be accepted. Will just have to wait and see.

Reflect

I watched a movie on HBO recently, The America's Sweetheart. It's a nice, feel-good movie, with a simple storyline, and I actually learnt a valuable lesson from it.

A brief summary of the story; The main star of the movie, John Cusack, is this famous actor, who was separated from his wife, as his wife had an affair with this Spanish guy. He then went to this rehab centre, as he had, what i assume, was a depresssive disorder. Whenever he faced a stressor, he would mumble to himself,'I'm grateful for the sun, the moon, the stars, ......'

It made me realise that I should not grumble about the problems in life, but instead be grateful with what I have been blessed with.


I'm grateful that I'm in a good health, and I'm able to travel to work daily. Other people who are disabled can't even take care of themselves and are dependent on other people.

I'm grateful that I have my own transportation, compared to others who need to travel by bus or bike to work.

I'm grateful that I'm living in comfort, without having to pay any liabilities or debts. As I'm currently staying at my parent's house, I don't need to worry about paying my bills.

I'm grateful that I have friends who are always supportive of me. Always there when I need them.

I'm grateful that I my place of work is just a mere 15-20 minutes away from my house, without having to face any traffic jam.

The list could go on and on...

By thinking and reflecting about the good things in life, it makes me feel grateful and not complain about the problems that face daily. I just have to remind myself that I'm not that unlucky after all.

Vasovagal syncope

I only spent 2 hours at work today.

This morning, I went to work determined as i was not on-call or post-call. Plus, I had a good break yesterday as it was Deepavali Day and spent it by watching a movie with my sister.

The drama started when a baby in the NICU was desaturating despite positive pressure ventilation. Turns out the endotracheal tube was not in place and my specialist had to re-intubate the baby again. I was there assisting her, giving the cricoid pressure, and my specialist was having difficulty localising the vocal cords. It was clearly a difficult intubation.

Another friend of mine came to the scene, and she asked what was going on. I briefly explained to her.

After a few attempts, she instructed my collegue to assist her instead while ignoring me completely. The stress came to me, and my mind was boggling. Am I a poor assistant? Am I bringing her bad luck? I was being paranoid.

With my collegue being her assistant, she managed to intubate the baby successfully and the baby's saturation picked up. While the nurses was helping her to anchor the tube, the specialist told me - 'You should not speak when someone is intubating.'

It felt like a slap on the face. I know it was a simple comment but it hit me really hard. That was when i started having the symptoms; my head was spinning and I was feeling light. I tried to distract myself by reading the patient's file together with my collegue.

As I was doing that, I suddenly felt nauseous and the giddiness became worse. I quickly ran to the bathroom, thinking that I would vomit. I started having cold sweats; grabbed the sink, trying not to faint. I was really scared.

I immediately sat down on the nearby sofa, hyperventilating, trying to figure out what was happening to me. Thought I had a hypoglycaemic attack, but when the nurse checked by capillary sugar level it was 4.6mmol/L.

My specialist came to see me, and when she saw I was sweating away and looking pale, she instructed me to go home and have a rest. Plus, I'm gonna be on-call tomorrow.

I didn't think I was fit to drive, so I called up my brother and he came to pick me up from the hospital.


At this moment, I'm still figuring out what actually happened to me today. My guess is that I had a vasovagal attack, triggered by stress.

It worries me as my paranoia is becoming worse day by day. I can't even take a simple criticism and I always feel that people are against me. I need to learn to be more thick-skinned and take people's remark in a positive manner to improve myself.

Will I ever learn?

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day

It was raining heavily today. I was cleaning up my room when my dad called me from the living room, 'Look! The road in front of house looks like a stream! The water is running so fast!' I stared blankly outside the window when my mind drifted to about 15 years back. Those days, I was constantly with my younger brother. Just the two of us, we were like best friends; seldom apart. There was one day when it was raining cats and dogs like this, and we were both tempted to go out to play in the rain. Mum grabbed our raincoats, a blue and a red one if I'm not mistaken and we rushed out in the rain. We also had our red Wellington boots on. What I still remember was that we made boats from paper, ie. the origami, and let it float in the water. I even wrote a message on the boat, hoping that somebody would take the boat as it floats in the water, and read the message written on it. Haha, wishful thinking. It was just a simple event in life, but at times like this, it makes me realise how much I miss my childhood days when it was all about playing and having fun. Will I ever have that feeling again

My mind and I

Do you believe in self-diagnosing your problem?

Well, the last time I did that, my so called dysmenorrhea turned out to be an acute appendicitis. So much about knowing your own body.

And again, i'm self diagnosing myself. This time it's something to do with my mind.

Yes, mental illness is a very significant disease. It is debilitating disease, the worse part being that people choose to ignore it and refuse to take any form of intervention for it.

I won't say I have Major Depression, but Dysthymia would be a better diagnosis.

Let's check the features of the illness, shall we?

1. More common in women

Yes, i'm an XX

2. More often in persons with history of long-term stress or sudden losses

At the moment, my stressor is...WORK

3. Often coexists with other psychiatrics disorders (substance abuse, OCD)

This is a no no

4. Symptoms worse later in the day

Actually I feel worse in the morning. Almost everyday for the past 2 weeks

5. Between 20 and 35 years of age

This is me.

What about the symptoms?

1. Poor appetite. Yes

2. Sleep problem. Yes

3. Fatigue. Yes

4. Low self esteem. Yes

5. Poor concentration or difficulty inmaking decisions. Yes

6. Feeling of hopelessness. Yes

What am I doing about it? Just what I do best...sleep and try to forget about it. At the same time, hoping that it'll go away and start a fresh new beginning the next day.

This is so sad.

Girl in car vs police officer

An interesting thing happened today.

I was driving back from work, while talking to a good friend of mine. About 5 minutes from the hospital, a police officer on a motorbike showed a signal for me to pull over by the side of the road. At that point I realise...Owh man, am gonna get a summon today...

I stopped my car by the busy road, near Berkeley Garden. He got off from his motorbike, and circled round my car. Not quite sure what he was looking for. Probably trying to figure out where I'm from based from my licensed plate.

I took out my driving license before he could even ask and passed it to him. I apologised profusely for commiting the offence and flashed a smile at him. Haha. Was really hoping that I won't need to pay any duit kopi to him..

I committed 2 offences:
1. Driving + chatting on the phone without a hands-free
2. Not wearing a seatbelt while driving

At this point, he was asking me about the phone call that I had and where I was from. This was when I worked my charm. Told him that the call was an urgent call from the hospital, and it was from a collegue of mine. As soon as I told him my profession and showed him my ID as a proof, he immediately soften up. Haha. Mission accomplished.

We had a small chat after that, he let my off with a warning..


Moral of the story: Always keep my ID in the car. Will never know when I'll need it next. It works as a charm. Splendid.

Bandung

I'm back!

Went to Bandung, Indonesia on 3rd day of Raya and spent 3 nights there. One word of advice, don't go to Bandung on Hari Raya week! The town was full of people, most of them being tourists from Jakarta. Turns out that they get one week of holiday for Raya Aidilfitiri (or Lebaran according to Indonesians), and the people from Jakarta will spend their holiday in Bandung as the weather is much cooler.

The factory outlets were like on sale and the cars were bumper to bumper on the streets. Hailing for a taxi was really difficult. The worse was on the 3rd day of Raya. After we went to one factory outlet, we were already so exhausted. It was really crowded!

Well, I was generally satisfied with the trip as we managed to shop and go for sightseeing. I'll just briefly go through the places that we went.

Mt Tangkuban Perahu: It was cool to see an active volcano for the first time. Smoke could be seen from far, and the stench of sulphur was bad but still bearable. We had the option of going round the crater but we decided to save our energy for other activites that day. Many vendors could be seen selling souvenirs around the place. They will come and persuade you to buy their goods. Got irritated at one point coz they just didn't get it when we told them that we were not interested. My sister went on a horse ride. It costs 15000 Rupiah for one trip. Dad bought belerang from the place, one mineral water bottle full, which they claimed is good for the skin after mixing it with baby oil.

Strawberry Park: The strawberry patch was within a fence and a restricted area. We only saw the garden between the bamboo shoots that were used as the fence. The main attraction of the place was the restaurant and it was full of people when we went. We only spent about 10 minutes at this place.

Kampung Daun: This place is just superb. It is actually a restaurant, about one hour from town. It's a big makan place, with lots of huts among the waterfall and hillside. It's good to go to this place in a group, as each group will get their own hut to eat in. The atmosphere was just amazing. The food was just top notch. The presentation was great and the food tasted good too! Even a five star restaurant could not beat its quality.

Shopping:

Rumah Mode: It's actually pronounced in bahasa baku. Not how we pronounce mode in English. Everybody who has gone to Bandung recommended me this place. Well, personally I didn't find it a really great place to shop at. Only bought one top from here. The place is huge compared to other factory outlets that I went. The place was so crowded and I had to queue up for half an hour to pay for my clothes. Great family spot as they have women, men and kids section.

Heritage: The place is famous for it's historical building. I like this place better that Rumah Mode. My sister bought 6 clothes from here.

Blossom: This place is along Dago Street. I like this place as the price is reasonable, and it seems to be more organized that the other factory outlets. They arranged the clothes according to colour or type. I bought shoes from here and I love them to bits! They have another branch along Cihampelas, in a shopping complex, but it's called Blossom and Friends. The selection of clothes here were not that great.

Cihampelas Street: So called 'jeans street'. Yes, they do have a wide selection of jeans to coose from, but after going to factory outlets, you will find the goods are of poor quality. The place is almost similar to Rantau Panjang, Kelantan. The interesting thing about this place are the comic figures that you see on their signboards. It's actually 3D and each comic figure appears to be jumping out from the signboard.

Bandung Super Mall: Some may say that going to a shopping mall in Bandung is a waste of time, but it's interesting to see the brands that they offer in Bandung. It is the biggest shopping mall in Bandung. I would say that the size of the place is the same as Sunway Pyramid. There's a nice batik shop here, called Batik Keris. Dad and Tokku bought batik shirts and songkok from here.

Pasar Baru: This is a place for mothers and older teenagers. It's a good place to purchase kebayas and nice telekungs. You need to haggle for a good price.

Danar Hadi: This is a famous boutique which sells batik. Tokku bought a nice silk batik shirt from here which he is so proud of. Good place if you're looking for good quality batik.

That's all for my review of Bandung. Would I go there for the second time? Well, maybe next year, definitely not after Raya...

Strawberry Park- The strawberry patch is behind the fence

Kampung Daun

Nasi Goreng Kampung Daun

Tangkuban Perahu

Day 1 of Raya

This is the first time in 25 years that we're celebrating Hari Raya Puasa in Shah Alam. Why? Coz most of our cousins are sitting for exams after Raya, and tokku decided to come here for Raya. So the ones staying in Shah Alam and KL didn't go back to KB and the ones currently in KB remained there.

The schedule for first day of raya was packed for us.

Morning: Solat Raya Aidilfitri, breakfast, brunch as Opah's house
Afternoon: Lunch at Ayah Ching's place
Evening: Tea at our place plus at Auntie Syam's and dinner at Nda Chik's

I can't even remember when was the last time we had a family event like this at our house. Most likely when I was still at SAAS. That was at least 8 years back. Really, I'm not kidding.

Our Menu for tea:
Main Course: Nasi Dagang (thank you Kak Mi for this), Sate Hj Samuri, Nasi Impit and Rendang (by Nda We)
Dessert: a couple of cakes, contributed by dad's friends
Drinks: Punch (by Ku Yea)

Our maid wasn't around so everything had to be done by ourselves. Well, not really the cooking bit, but heating up the food, making the drink, and preparing the table etc. Not as easy as I thought it would be.

Our table was full, but the guests didn't eat much. Can't blame them coz we had a scrumptious meal at Ayah Ching's house earlier. One of the cakes was even untouched.

Even though my sister and I were most of the time in the kitchen, it was fun coz our cousins and aunties helped out. Shiqin helped to make the coffee (thanks to much! u're a life saviour!),Nina with the Kopi O (I wasn't sure how many coffee bags to put in the jug! Embarrassing but true) and Nda We helped with the dishes.

The satisfaction was there after the event. Tiring but fun coz we had the chance to spend time as one whole big family at our place. I don't even know when will be the next one.

Cousins-just the girls

besok raya!!

Wireless at last

This is the first time I'm posting a blog from my laptop..We finally have wireless at home. Dad's tech guy came to the house this morning, and he completed the whole process in TWO hours. I know, two hours is really long right...Allow me to ellaborate.

0830: The guy came to the house and I was forced to get up from bed in case he needed any assistance.

0840: He installed the 3 Com Wireless Router on our desktop without any difficulties.

0845: This was when the problem started. In order to use the router, we had to enter the streamyx password. None of us remembered what the password was! We searched through all the old streamyx documents that we had but none of them had the info that we needed.

0900: I finally thought of calling TMnet for the password. Turns out somebody had changed the password (most likely my brother who was currently at school) and the default password could not be used. Hence, she had to reset the password and a new password was then given to me. The new password can only be used after half an hour.

0930: We finally managed to be online, using our desktop.

0935: The guy wanted to test out the wireless function. I took out my laptop for him to use.

0940: Again, problems arose. Somehow, my laptop could not detect the wireless connection. I found it puzzling coz I was able to go online without difficulties a couple of months back at Starbucks.

1000: Still trying to connect to the internet using my laptop. At this point, he is suspecting a possible viral infection on my pc and he's trying to uninstall possible programs that may have been infected by it.

1005: He wanted to uninstall my antivirus program, ie. symantec antivirus, but I was unlucky enough that a password is required for that. AAaaargh! Not another password!

1010: He was about to give up at this point. He asked for another laptop, but the only other laptop available was my sister's, and her charging cable is malfunctioned. Great.

1015: Aaaahhh...finally I'm able to go online using my laptop. Somehow, he made some modifications here and there and so called virus was defeated.

He installed the AVG Anti-spyware on my laptop, which will locate the 'trojans' and hence will make my laptop run faster.

1020: Went to all the rooms to try out the wireless function. Even my maid's room had internet access now. Cool!

1030: Everything's done. The tech guy left and I continued surfing the net..

2 movies

I watched two movies yesterday. At the cinema, not on dvd, mind you! Need to grab the oppurtunity before I start work in 2 weeks time..

Watched the first movie with my sister in the afternoon. Should have watched this one much earlier, but only had the chance yesterday. It was my sister's second time watching it and the first one for me.

It was a great movie overall. Loved the dance moves and music, and the casts were talented. My personal favourite was Zac Efron..Ya, i know he's young and all but his eyes are his best feature...:)

Later that night, i watched another movie with a friend of mine. I've actually seen this movie earlier but it was my friend's first time. The movie was full of X rated jokes, and I'm surprised why our local censorship actually allowed this movie to be aired here. Probably coz they only focused on the visual bit.

Adam Sandler was perfect for the part, and I had a couple good laughs watching this one. My favourite scene was when there were in court, towards the end of the show. They were best of friends and sounded so gay at the same time.

Jessica Biel was super hot in this movie, but too bad she's not a good actress.

From Dim Sum to Pancakes

Went to Plaza Damas with my best friend last night. The original plan was to have halal dim sum for buka puasa (even though we both were not fasting!). She was not sure of the exact location of the restaurant, i.e. Yam Cha, so went round and round the boulevard, looking for the place. There were so many restaurants and cafes but the place that we were looking for were nowhere in sight. After half an hour of restaurant hunting, we gave up and decided to have pancakes instead.

I had a Seattle, which is actually like a pepperoni pizza. A pancake as a base, with toppings, i.e. beef pepperoni, tomatoes, mozarella cheese, sprinkled with pepper. It was excellent. My best friend had a seafood dish and her boyfriend had a Mexico. Managed to get a mouthful of each, and both dishes were just as good.

Wouldn't mind going there the second time. Maybe will try the Dollar Pancake, a famous dessert at this place, the next time around.

Dollar Pancake

My Mio-My PDA

MIO 169

At this point, I miss my PDA. It has been with me since last year, a gift from my dad. Never actually used it coz it's kinda bulky and heavy too. During my break, i realise that it's time for me to make full use of it. Passed the PDA to my dear friend, as he 'volunteered' to help me install whatever programs that i need. He successfully installed essential medical programs that I need, which is the main reason why I need a PDA for work.

While I was surfing the net yesterday, i realise that I PDA is not wifi and bluetooth enabled, which I find it puzzling. It is able to function as a GPS, and yet, it doesn't serve as a pda with wifi. Turns out that i now need to purchase a wifi sd card -RM 150-in order to use the function. aihh...looks like I've to go gadget hunting again.

Looking for the pda case is also another pain. Went to the IT section in Midvalley, they gave me this look when i mentioned my PDA brand. Like it's non-existent or something. Guess I've to make do with whatever PDA case i could find.

Can't wait to get my hands on my PDA.. My friend is still having fun with it at the moment. Trying out the GPS and all..Hope I'm able to find some space in one of my lab coat pockets, which are already full as it is..Need to carry this PDA around at work daily..good luck to me.

1 pass, 1 fail

I recently sat for my post grad exam. 4th of September to be exact. Had about 2 weeks of study break to burn the midnight oil to study for it. I considered myself lucky to be able to get my leave approved. Had to sacrifice 10 days of my paid leave, hoping that it would be worthwhile.

The exam was not an easy one. Paper 1a and 1b. After coming out from the exam hall at NUS, I felt that I had a very high possibility that i'd flunk the exam, but at the same time, having that tiny wish inside me that i'd pass both papers.

Results came out today. I was happy and sad at the same time. probabaly 60% sad. Kept on thinking that i failed that second paper..

Sometimes, the way you feel about the bad things in life depends on how your mindset is and how you look at it. I changed my perspective and and immediately planned my next step of action..

I just have to re-sit the exam! What's so difficult about that, right?

I'm just praying hard that I'd pass the exam the second time around..January 2008! Here i come!

I'm making a come back

i was about to post a comment on my cousin's page when i realise that i wasn't logged in yet. i couldn't recall whether i had an account at blogspot, but i tried to log in anyway.
Waalllaa! i actually had an account here and i've actually made a couple of posts....amazing how your mind can play tricks with you.

was just reading my first post. funny. who would have known that i'm now working in the paeds ward of HTAR, the place that i dreaded most 2 years ago!