2006

as the year counts down, the usual soul-searching begins again. what have i done this year? have i been good? could i have been better? was there anything i enjoyed tremendously? is there anything i regret? my happiest moment? my saddest moment? made any new friends? lost any? made new enemies? patched up relationships? re-discovered old friends?

bought any nice shirts or ties? anything exciting happened in your night life? how many goals did you score, how many miles did you run, how many tackles did you win? any interesting stories to share? any funny jokes? anything funny at all? anything?

made any trips to exotic places? met any exotic women? (this one i'll answer - no, sadly) read any good books? passed any exams? did any current issue piss you off and make you wish you could strangle the Minister in charge?

planned any coups? participated in any coups? any favourite new songs? any favourite movies? fell out of love with any movie star? saved any stranded whales recently? sent any letters by post? received any? were there any letters that you have read and re-read and re-read again?

any nice blogs anywhere? (besides this one, of course) joined a cult recently? left a cult recently? founded a cult recently? contributed to Wikipedia? vanity editing, perhaps? ate any exotic food? bought that new Apple i-Mac you've always wanted? possessed anything, did anything?

asked any questions recently? answered any?

eragon

what sort of a story is eragon? a boy riding a dragon, named eragon? that's just one letter different from d-ragon, e-ragon. how illuminating and original.

worse, isn't it a rip-off from JRR Tolkien's LOTR? Aragorn Strider, heir of Isildur and King of Gondor and Arnor, possessor of Anduril - that's the Aragorn most people think of when they hear that name.

and what of King Ferdinand of Aragon, a real-life king somewhere in Spain, i think, sometime in the 15th century, i think. he was some king, sending Columbus around the world, conquering Granada, marrying Isabella.

eragon, bah.

my first medical call

i was on call for the first ever time in Medical, on friday night. i was first call, and that means that you're in charge of the male ward - which has significantly more admissions than the female ward (more men get sicker). and you're also in charge of the First Class ward, as well as CCU/ICU.

it was a busy busy busy friday, and my ward was also active that day (meaning all the female admissions came into my ward, and i was responsible for them during office hours).

but thankfully, somehow or other, i managed to survive. thank God!

the solution to possibly the scariest and busiest on-call in the entire medical profession is simple: do not stop working. that's all you have to do to survive - do not stop working.

yay!

a-socialism

i work with people every day. e-ve-ry day. and it's a tough job entertaining all sorts of moods, behaviours, personalities, demands and expectations. i spend all day talking to people - eliciting a history of their complaint, explaining to them what's happening to them, re-assuring them that it's all going to be just fine, consoling the relatives who have just lost someone - i talk so much to so many people e-ve-ry day that sometimes when i get home i just get too tired to talk.

today's one of those days. i'm all talked out. so you'll pardon me if i'll just go ahead, have a shower and then have dinner.

reviews and buskers

whoa! what a fantastic review! it has everything: contemporary art critique, history, evolution of societal standards, comments on actual events and a suggestion on how to improve.

and i meant all of that honestly!

chicken pox

DISCLAIMER: this story is too important to be left till tomorrow.

**

when i was 6 years old, i had a bout of chicken pox - a really bad bout. i think i had septicaemia, and i was warded for a week, because i had an abscess develop on my lower back (no doubt due to the scratching).

the surgeons performed a skin graft on me sometime during that one week. my mom had to go to work in the hospital as usual, and my dad too - so it was left to the nurses there to look after me during office hours.

and today, 20 years later, while i was working in Medical D6, i met a nurse, and we got to talking. i noticed she was the same age as my mother, so i made that observation to her. she asked if my mother was still working - i said yes - she asked where - i said in the hospital - she said hospital taiping? - i said yes - she asked who - i said uh, peong (my mother's maiden name) - she gasped...

she was the nurse who took care of me when i was warded, and she remembered, all the way from 20 years ago!!

she fed me, cleaned me, soothed me, made me feel less lonely and scared... all this while we don't take notice of the people who took care of us, or we may not even know that we were taken care of. i know now, and i am very humbled by tonight's discovery.

thank you so very very much, Staff Nurse Zaliha!