Dog Or Goat?

Having a pet is like having a very mischevious cute kid.
I was home for holidays last weekend and I got to see first hand how naughty Phoebe can be.

Phoebe has a few toys of her own - a plastic bone, a collection of strings and a ball.
But for some reason, when she is let out of the house, she looks for new 'toys' - leaves and sticks and flower pots. Once she gets it, she would chew and chew on it, like she has not been fed for days!

Here's what happened yesterday :

I found Phoebe chewing on a piece of stick. I somehow managed to get the stick from her and threw it somewhere else.

She was then given her toys to choose from.

But Phoebe 'ditched' all her toys and went exploring.

And found a piece of pipe and refused to let it go until dinnertime (I have no idea why the pipe was there in the first place).

And today, the object of fascination was coconuts.

We had a few coconuts at home, given by cousin S.

Phoebe decided that they were new toys and picked them up from inside the house and carried them all the way to the garden to play with them.

Initially one was enough, but once it was all chewed up, she decided that she wanted more and got another one.

And I thought goats ate everything..

Surgery

Another department over with.

5 down, 1 more to go.

The last 4 months passed by very quickly that I didn't even realize the time flying by.
Surgery was an interesting experience.

It was a very 'teaching' department.

Weekly Surgical department activities.

Monday : Houseman teaching.

Tuesday : Lunch and drug talk

Wednesday : Mortality and Morbidity

Thurs : Pre op assessment and sometimes MO teaching

Friday : Breakfast + journal club/MO teaching/grandward rounds/department meeting

Everyone who goes through Surgery will also go through the suturing workshop where the MOs specialists and even consultants teach housemen how to suture properly. There aren't many places that the HOD teaches Housemen how to suture, right?

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's a very activity oriented department.

Previously they have had family days and other outdoor activities but then I didn't have the chance for those (came in at the wrong time).

I did have fun in the department, although there were some things that I didn't like about it..as I said before, colleagues are the most important thing in making your working life fun.

I will be joining Anaesth next Monday. I don't really know what to look forward too, all I know is that it is going to be cold (because I think we will be in the OT most of the time). Time to dig out all my long sleeves..

For Kicks?

I went for a movie last night. I don't usually watch movies on weekdays, but I was on leave yesterday and woke up late so I didn't really mind sleeping late.

It was a Tamil movie, Thilalangkadi (I still don't know what it means because Bala doesn't know the meaning as well). 10 of us went for the movie but I think only 2 of us stayed awake for the whole movie. I am rather proud to say that I am one of the 2.

I went for the movie for 2 reasons:
1. The hero is Jeyam Ravi - his movies so far have been quite OK, so I don't mind watching his movies (there are some actors whose movie I REFUSE to watch even if I am given a free ticket).
2. Those who have gone for the movie said that it was a good watch.

I can't stand the movie!!
It wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't good either.
Mr. S said that he didn't even realize the time passing, but I felt that the movie was going on and on and all I wanted was for the movie to end.

There are some similarities between this movie and Santosh Subramaniam - in this movie he is acting crazy, and in Santosh Subramaniam, the heroine is the crazy one. And I don't like both the movies (although if you ask my parents, they would say that Santosh Subramaniam is a very nice movie).

Some parts of the movie was not bad, there was even a part or 2 where I laughed out loud (and you have to trust me on this one- I am not the kind who laughs out loud). My favourite part was when Prabu goes to the police station. But for the most part, I just found the acting irritating and the jokes lame. Like most Tamil movies, the plot is predictable and there are many unanswerable questions (like how did he manage to run away from 4 policemen whose guns are all directed right at him). Plus, if he is really such a nice person, how come he felt no regret when cars blew up (and I assume people got injured or died) because of him?

I didn't enjoy the songs as well - maybe I've grown too old and cannot enjoy the current generation songs anymore..*gasp*..have I become my parents?

I guess you could put it this way - go for the movie without expectations and you will like it. Just enjoy the jokes and (for those who can stand him [I can't]) Vadiveloo. There is no complex story line, just humor from the beginning till the end. But go there hoping to catch a great movie - you will be disappointed.

Phoebe The Labrador

We have a new addition in our house, Phoebe.



Now, let me clarify something. I am not a big fan of pets and I didn't actually agree to having a labrador in the house. But then, I am not living at home, and I am not the one who is going to be doing the taking care, so I guess I can't complain.

I am actually quite afraid of dogs...not Togo and Tagar and Gamby of course (although I still cannot bear for them to jump on me), so I was rather nervous about meeting Phoebe for the first time last weekend.

I bought her a new bowl, a toy and a treat as a bribe, hoping she won't bark at me or bite me. What happened was, she took the toy and the treat and then ran away from me.

I don't understand, is she afraid of me? This is the first time a dog is running away from me instead of vice versa. I tried the whole weekend to get into her good books, but for some reason she kept running away or barking at me. Although she runs to me when I give her treats. I guess she needs more time to get used to strangers (just like me!).

I must say, she is rather well trained. She does her bussiness only outside the house, and never in the house or her cage (which is inside the house) even overnight. She knows that she can only have her food and drinks inside the cage. She knows that when we go out she has to get into the cage and never causes a fuss.

I am rather surprised though - I never thought that my Mom would allow a dog into the house, free to run in and out. She is SO attached to the puppy, it's like a proud Mother with a newborn baby. In fact, everytime I talk to my mother nowadays, she will be telling this and that story about Phoebe. When we go out anywhere, all my Mom want's to do is get back home so that Phoebe won't be lonely. 26 years, and I never knew Mom loved animals so much..

Well, I didn't have time to take pictures with Phoebe the last time I was back, mainly because she was too busy running away from me. Here are some shots of her when she first joined the family.

a rare moment - Phoebe standing still enough to be photographed


"Hmm..what am I supposed to do with this?"

"Doesn't taste that good, though"

p/s I have no idea what happened to the tennis ball; it wasn't anywhere in sight when I went back.

Myths About India

I went for a short trip to India, or more accurately Chennai, recently. No, it wasn't a sight seeing trip, nor was it a temple trip. I went there for my friend's wedding.

I have heard many stories about India - too many in fact.
The stories have made me not want to go to India.
I was actually afraid of going to India because of all the things people have planted in my head.
Now that I have gone and experienced India myself, let me clarify a few things that have been said about India.

1. India is very dirty.
It is as dirty as Malaysia is. I don't think we have a right to comment on others regarding this issue.

2. You get diarrhoea if you eat their food, drink their water.
Let me tell you something, as far as I know, out of the 6 of us Malaysians who went to India together, none of us had any gastroenteritis. We had food at hotels and restaurants, we had bottled water, we had their tea and we had bajji (which they fried at the seaside) and we survived. So guess that is not true as well.

3. There are beggars everywhere and they will all rush and come ask money from you.
Throughout my stay, I saw only 1 beggar I think. Try walking aroung KL for a day and tell me how many you saw.

4. It is hot and dusty.
It is dusty, yes, but then that is because of the lack of rain. But to say it is hot, we don't exactly live in the Artic, you know..

5. Many times, I have heard stories of how the people in India 'relieve' themselves everywhere and everywhere.
NOT TRUE! (At least, I didn't see any)

6. Pickpockets are everywhere.
Once again, please look at your own backs*** before you talk about others.

7. It's noisy.
This I agree. Horns blaring everywhere! But I guess that is their style of driving.

8. You have to wear sarees/punjabi suits wherever you go or people will be staring at you.
I wore jeans EVERYWHERE. The girls there wear jeans as well. No big deal.

9. Shopping in India is good.
It's not just good, it is INCREDIBLE!! Never in my life have I shopped like that. I practically had to tear myself away from the shops. The punjabi suits and sarees are so cheap and beautiful..and the variety they have is AMAZING!!

10. When you shop there, the people will try to cheat you.
I am not much of a bargaining person, so I went to all fixed price shops, and I think I got a good deal. If you are so afraid of getting cheated, just go to such shops.

I can't think of anymore things..but here's what I am trying to say, India is not at all that bad. I never thought I would say this, but I WILL go to India again. For sight seeing and for shopping. Or maybe I should say for SHOPPING and for sight seeing. And to see my friends there (who are such gems and took care of us like children when we were there)

I will put up another post with pictures and more details of my trip - don't have any pictures with me right now.

Dinnertime

You would think that after a month of not writing anything, I would have loads of interesting things to tell. You are wrong.

My day to day life has now SO monotonous that the days have just blended to one another and I can't tell a Monday from a Friday.

Here's how a typical day goes - wake up-go to work-review patients-rounds with MO-rounds with specialist-do ward work-lunch-pm review-ward work-go back home-go for dinner-back home-bathe/go online/read story book-sleep.

This is a daily routine. The only spark of excitement in my life is dinner.

I now have permanent dinner mates, all of us housemen, which means that our topic of conversation is about the specialists, MOs, housemen and cases that we saw that day at work. And to imagine, that is the most exciting part of my day..

Here's the thing. In the morning, you go to work feeling neutral (not happy, not sad, not angry). But throughout the course of the day, things change.

Most of the days, things go wrong. In fact, I come back almost everyday, angry about something. Maybe it's just me (or maybe it's not). But I have to say, I am quite glad that I am getting out of this department soon (hopefully I don't get extended). It's not the work, it's just the people that I have to work with that I can't stand. What is the use of having 20 people to drive a car if no one is willing to offer to drive it or if they can't be bothered to properly learn how to drive it?

There were also days that I came back smiling. Days when it felt like nothing in the world can make me feel bad. However, such days were rare.

I am getting out of the topic though. All I'm trying to say is, good days or bad days, one needs to pour their heart out to someone, and who else better to talk to that those who know all the characters in the stories? Right?

So that's why our dinner topics are such a bore. In fact, it's not just our dinner topics. It's our all the time topic, whether we meet in the hospital or out of the hospital. It got so bad, till KR complained that that is the only thing we talk about and he is bored of it.

I guess I am lucky. I have people around me who actually care for me. Who buy for me dinner whenever I am oncall because the oncall food sucks. I have people who listen to me when I complain, who look at me and in one glance know that I am unhappy about something. I am lucky because I have managed to find myself a few true friends, who really care about me.

A year ago, I used to eat dinner alone everyday, with a storybook to keep me company. Nowadays, I hardly have time to read my storybook because I spend that time having dinner and talking stories. Maybe that is one of the reason of my inactivity here..Can't blame a girl if she's too busy talking to write, right?

Why does the lab need a telephone?

Lab results play an important role in diagnosing and managing a patient.

Sometimes, results are needed as fast as possible to decide on the treatment of a patient.

Most of the time, we trace the results through the computer (in wards where they are available or downstairs at the lab itself). Sometimes, however, we have to call the lab, eg when we are in a hurry (as not all the wards has this tracing facility) or when the system is down.

Most of the time, when you call the lab, either the call goes unasnwered or it is engaged.

This is what I saw when I went down to the lab today.

In case you can't see it clearly, I've zoomed in the photo for you.

And this isn't the first time that I've seen the phone like this..