OMG IM SO INSANELY HAPPY RIGHT NOW I'M PRACTICALLY PRANCING AROUND MY ROOM (OR RATHER WAS)!!!

I TOPPED MY COHORT FOR THEME 1 WRITTEN PAPER!!!!!!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I HAVE NEVER TOPPED A COHORT BEFORE!

AND PLUS THIS IS MED SCHOOL!

MY 4 ROUNDS OF REVISION PAID OFF SIA!!

though i need to put more effort into my theme 2-5 and applied exam because my final mark dropped from 85.17 to 78%.

whoops!

my pencil case is like gone (forever) i think. i'll just treat it as charity. since the people here ARE actually quite poor, with most of them on bursaries, sships etc. like they are on youth allowance and stuff. >< and you thought they were rich. pens here are really expensive so i'll just take it that i donated my entire pencil case (oh man) of stationery, thumbdrive (thank god there's nothing inappropriate), post-its.

pfft.

anyway, madam3 butterfly was alright i guess. the thing was that it was an opera (duh) and they sung it in english! :S i was like "HUH WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SINGING?!" like 40% of the time. and its not just us (because we're asians). even the austral1an couple next to me were like whispering and asking each other if they understood. hahaha! seriously if it were in italian and they had subs, i think that would be much easier to understand. but overall it wasn't that bad i guess. like you could still tell what was going on and stuff.

pasar malam 2 on friday was good i guess. but this time round i did more cleaning up than selling. which i really didnt mind. it was really messy outside and i was quite happy to be inside just staring at them (slacking) when i was done with the cleaning. hahaha.

these few weeks are going to be insane.. AGM, singapore night, presentation etc. so glad i've already done my (k1ds and fam1ly prog) on wed! my family (mother) was really nice! though we didnt really agree with her not wanting to br3astfeed but we werent there to give advice so we just nodded and like uhhuh.

argh i hate voice recorded operators so badly! they take down wrong msgs and cause me so much trouble!!!

i'm going to watch madame butterfly tonight! :) so i shall study till dinner and then hopefully complete more topics so i wont feel so guilty! argh if only tonight wasnt the only night left!

i think i lost my pencil case!!!!!! OMFG!

*HELP!!!*

ARGHHH THIS IS SOO EFFING TERRIBLE!!!

GOSH I HATE THIS!

end of week 1! ok i survived.. hahah! with like >25 hrs a week.. its almost like hell! but i guess once we get used to it, it wouldnt be as bad. this week's timetable has me travelling between clinical school and back to uni (sometimes within 40min!) so that just means that i will have to go figure out the bus system (hopefully there's a bus!) or like hitch a ride or something. grr. i dont mind walking provided there's time but since there isnt.. oh man.. rush rush rush!

weather's getting colder.. but i guess it IS winter after all. but having said that, it doesnt mean that it is THAT cold that i cannot take it anymore. i've got a heater that is still below half the max, an electric blanket and heaps of winter clothing + thermals etc. so i definitely can last through winter. some LTs are so warm that we have to remove our coats and just have the lecture in teeshirts.

was j3ss' birthday yest so we went to mure5 for dinner! i think its cheaper than fi5h fr3nzy.. was heaps crowded man! the ice cream was like yummilicious! old english toffee, macademia nut, honeycomb! we shared of course.. was like *faints* after i finished my dinner. went back soon after and did some studying.. some of them went to i5o which i really really dont like that much. wads so great about clubbing? going once or twice is alright but going there every now and then is crazy. argh not my cup of tea.

so yes i've just finished my mindmaps for week 1! yay so proud of myself man.. really hope i can survive this hectic semester with all its reports, assignments, reflective pieces, presentations etc. wait, i will be able to do it!! YES! :)) its always like this. you think you're going to die when you look at what's ahead but once its over, everything just doesnt seem that bad anymore.

right?

its thursday! just had lunch and now im in my room trying to study anatomy of thigh and gluteal for my dissection pract in like 2.5h time. saw the cadavers yesterday. wasnt quite what i had expected. i was actually afraid to touch them at first! i think the dissected head on my cadaver is actually less daunting than the ones that are untouched. makes it all too real. like their hair, nose, eyelashes, facial features etc. the large cadaver near my table scares me a little because i keep thinking that he will start moving all of a sudden. when i stand at the end with his head and look right down to his body, i can see his expression and somehow i just start imagining how he would have been if he were alive. its just this body. maybe because it is not as wrinkled or leather-like like the others. just freaks me out a little. the bodies are just too pale, too hard and too real. (of course they're real.)

guess when we're dissecting we wouldnt really be looking at the entire body but rather just the thigh (this time round) so the other parts would be covered up and out of sight. thank god my cadaver doesnt have nail polish. that would be freaky.

went to clinical school earlier and had lectures on surface anatomy and intro to history taking as well as how to conduct an examination for musculoskeletal problems.

1. inspect
2. palpate
3. move
4. others

so yes those are the things we have to do for our OSCE that will be coming right up.. >< i think this semester is going to be a really busy one. with pasar malam next friday again and singapore night coming up on national day. there will be AGM and committee retreat too! so i've gotta be on top of my game if i'm going to be able to complete my work AND handle all these extra things. was actually made emce3 for singapore night but with my workload, i really dont think i have the time to prepare and rehearse the speech etc with jer3my! told sal3h after the meeting and he said we'll discuss it next week. seriously its not that i simply dont want to do but there are a few reasons that contribute to my decision.

1. no nicenice appropriate clothes to wear (HAH excuses)
2. presentation the day before
3. test the next week
4. 9-5 pm timetable almost everyday

see so it is almost impossible for me to handle all of that at once! i dont want to fail man! my kids and family programme (KFP) grouping is out! thank god i think the people in my group are people who can work and people whom i already know! :)) AND they are nice wonderful peeps too! so yes, let's hope that we can work together happily throughout the entire course of the programme (1.5yrs)!

just claimed back money from med1bank too! yay! so at least i didnt have to pay a cent for the blood test, consultations etc. its weird how they reimburse you differently everytime? i think it depends on the category they key the information into.. hmm..

ok shall head back to my butt muscles (gluteal) and then prepare to go back to school for fractures lecture and dissection!!

today's the last day of hols! its back to school tmr! :( timetable's horrible. oh well and i guess it can only get worse.. ><

im back in tassie! the flight wasn't as bad the one back. it went by really quickly.. :) loitered in melbourne for a while. slept while waiting for the domestic flight. *yawns* was really tired cos didnt really sleep on the plane. watched billy elliot and 21.. 21 is nice! but it was a little draggy after a while (maybe because i was sleepy).

ate lemon fish, potato salad, bread, lemonade for dinner. had magnum ice cream for dessert too! then i had cadbury hot chocolate with marshmallow!

breakfast was pain au chocolate which i didnt eat cos i wasnt hungry. had some lemon biscuit which i dabaoed. had orange juice and fruits too.

didnt have anything on the jetstar flight because it was budget so you had to buy the stuff. zzz. cheapo. so i just slept until they told us we were descending liao.. :)) it was a good sleep because i had the entire row to myself! so i put my legs onto the other two seats and slept.

managed to unpack (phew!) after lugging my 28kg luggage up the stairs.. unpacked my hand luggage, slept, lunch, unpacked a little more, slept, unpacked all. so yes! i was done by 5+pm.. hehe!

okok i think i shall go sleep liao. tired man. played taboo just now in the HCR. quite funny.. the game started getting a bit racist for some words.. hahahah!!!

results are out today! guess im quite alright with it. 78%. 2 marks away from HD. :( but second highest that i know so far which is great! the other person got 79% but she's a repeat student (so thats another matter).

had mala hotpot at uncle's house just now. YUMMY! it wasnt too hot so it was manageable. didnt stuff myself like i normally would though i still think i ate quite a lot. had haagen daaz ice cream after dinner. heavenly! cookies and cream... mmhmm..

shall go sleep soon. tired man.

oh right! i went for threading today! it wasnt as painful as i thought it would be but it was shiok! damn high after it! went to rup1ni's.. $18 for the entire face.. nicenice! they shape your eyebrows too.. :))

so i have successfully completed my scuba open water diving cert! YAY! it was really fun! its something that you have to try before you die. the underwater world is a world of its own - a world reserved for the selected few.

day 1: reached jaime3's shop at 6.45pm. supposed to meet at 7 but she was caught in a jam so we only left at about 7.45pm. seriously the jam at woodlands was NOT funny. it was disgusting. only crossed woodlands at about 10pm! it wasnt the inefficiency but the traffic police directing the traffic at the crossroad! somehow our lane just didnt move AT ALL for like 30min? was getting a little pekchek at it not moving but then all was well in the end. after crossing the msian customs, we stopped at the petrol kiosk near the big jusco for a break and waited for the other van to come along. just slacked and had a short chitchat with the other divers too. after they arrived, we set off for m3rsing! only arrived at m3rsing at about 12-1am. sat around again waiting for the boat. because it was low tide, we had to take a smaller boat before transferring to the bigger boat. this took quite a while as there were many groups at the jetty. after X min, we finally got onto the bigger boat and i just slept all the way till we reached dayang at about 4.45am. the boat was quite cold cos i was sitting right in front of the aircon! but jaim3 passed me her jacket so all was good. :)) quickly went to the chalet and KO-ed immediately.

Day 2: woke up at 8.45am to breakfast and quickly started our first dive at 10+am. it was scary to jump into the open sea for the first time but we quickly got used to it. thankfully the water wasnt very cold. just 27deg. did a few skills underwater and then we surfaced. returned to shore for lunch and prepared for second dive! same thing, two more skills and we started to fin around. it was fun! only problem was that i couldnt really stay near the bottom of the sea and kept going upwards. hahaha. returned for tea and we played volleyball while jaim3 and d3s brought the other group out to snorkel. seriously i think we all sucked big time at volley except a1nah cos she was a volleyballer. went for our third and last dive for the day at 5+ and we just finned around looking at stuff. hahaha it was really cool man! came back for dinner which was yummy! lamb chop, satay, fruit cocktail etc. :) logged our dives and then we went to sleep at about 10+ cos we were really really tired...

Day 3: woke up at 7 for our first dive! went down to 18m! saw a hell lotta stuff man.. was really nice! saw clownfishes, sea cucumbers, starfishes, sea slugs, trigger fish etc. went back for breakfast and then went for our last dive! this was really like a play play dive cos we just finned around and started taking pics! a bit weird to not be able to smile cos once u have the regulator in your mouth.. hehe.. left shortly after lunch. was a loonnng boat ride back to mersing man. we were attempting to tan ourselves on the front of the boat but it got a little too hot to tahan so we went back to the top deck and just slept. i slept on the boat on the floor cos the chairs were being cooked by the sun. zzz. ate ramly burger (yummy!) at the roadside stall at mersing. basically the rest of the trip was uneventful until we reached singapore customs! w3ndy was behind me in the queue and i managed to cross the access passport thing without a glitch. unfortunately, she got stuck at the fingerprint station. and apparently after her, the entire system crashed. HAHAH! so we had to wait a loonng time for her to come out. didnt know the details cos we went downstairs already. this is called karma man! cos she was still saying that the msian customs officer is crosseyed and she was trying not to laugh! evil!! hehehe..

so yes. im a scuba diver now! :) funfunfun!

how can anyone stand someone like that? seriously. argh. i'll go mad man.

anyway! going out with ruth and pam later! YAY! so fun! don't really know what we're going to do though but we'll figure out when we get here. hahah!

shall go pack my scuba diving bag now. :)

im not sure what i have been doing for the past 1+ week. practically nothing i guess. apart from going shopping and out with am1 and j3ssie, i have been staying at home and watching movies, reading books and surfing the net. now i know why i got myself a job after As. boredom can KILL.

sometimes i wonder how anyone can be so spendthrift as to dine at restaurants whenever they go out. i mean yes restaurant food may be much nicer, with better presentation and ambiance and going there once in a while can be a real treat but to go there almost every time can be a real burden on the pocket man!

my limit so far is prob like $20+/person. things like sush1 tei or se0ul garden etc. its crazy to eat top grade things when our pockets dont really allow it. even if we are rich (or not). its not good to spend like that too man. its alright during the honeymoon period but if this is going to be lifelong, whoaa good luck!

went shopping at far 3ast the other day. saw all the poor boyfriends being bored to death by the girlfriends who seem oblivious to the fact that their boyfriends are bored to death. there was this guy who was carrying a sudoku book along and doing it outside the shop while waiting for her. i think that's really dumb man. in this instance, i think the guy is more like a slave/servant than the boyfriend. after all, he would probably have to carry all her shopping bags after that too. please, carry your own bags unless they are really too heavy/many for you then you SHARE. not dump everything onto him!

but yes, we reached a consensus that we probably wouldn't drag our future boyfriends shopping unless its just for fun and not like really wanting to buy something that takes forever to choose. grocery shopping or shopping with a list in mind is fine i guess. chop chop and be done with it. but then again, i'm not sure if these boyfriends mind it. maybe they don't. haha.

life's full of surprises. even unexpected ones. things that will throw you off your balance. life's too fragile. for all you know, you might die/be killed the next moment. life's dangerous. why am i emoing here?

answer: my uni prof just died unexpectedly. link

some of you might wonder "so what?" but it is a great deal when it is something unexpected. plus it sounded like murder. but even the police doesn't know how he died. i bet he must have said the darnest things with his famous 'sexy' voice. damn it means that i wouldnt be able to count the number of 'actually' that he says! apparently he used to pepper his sentences with it to the extent that people started counting! wanted to do it next sem but i guess there's no more.

he was extremely friendly and entertaining at times. the first time i met him was during commencement dinner and he was the chaplain. he ended dinner with grace and said "may god protect and watch over us as we prepare for rest..." which was ironic considering it was a saturday night and its obvious that most of them weren't going to rest so we all couldnt help but giggle. he was the sort of lecturer who would be really sarcastic and animated as he tried to make ethics really interesting.

despite all his physical disabilities and illnesses, he tried to come to class, even if he had to sit in a wheelchair and not use his walking stick. he picked on students and 'terrorised' them with negative examples. his jokes were filled with sexual innuendos which were hilarious. but i loved the one he did about disabilities and resource allocation. he was trying to pretend to be a disabled baby so he went "waaa.. waa.. waa.. DOWN SYNDROME! waa.. waa.." as compared to "waa.. waa.. National Swimmer! waa.. waa.. waaa..." cant really remember wad he said for the second part but it was hilarious!!

but now he's gone.

just one/two weeks before exams, he came by to jane to help someone with their work so he sat at our table for dinner. j3ss told him that i am one of his students and he started to ask me whether i had studied for t2-5. and obviously i hadnt. unfortunately. but he asked me how do patients express their autonomy and luckily i knew it was through informed consent. then he asked how do you achieve that. so its like telling them what they will be undergoing, covers the procedure, the surgeon etc. christin@'s answer was classic. "ask them?!" hahah and he was like "yes thats's essentially wad you have to do...." HAHAH he gave us tips on the exams and stuff like that but throughout dinner he was really engaging and fun!

but yes he's now gone.

who's going to teach us next semester now? i still remember writing on his SETL that he should revise his slides cos they seems a little outdated. >< like the cases didnt match wad we were doing that week. he was supposed to try and get people in the middle of the LT to participate cos he asked if i sat at the back and i was like no i sit in the middle. its weird isnt it. how life plays such horrid tricks on you.

he was still telling us about how his daughter played truant in school and they had to go down and look for her after the police found her somewhere. he also told us how he has experienced breakthrough pain due to his illnesses. he tells us about his wife and stuff like that. you see him as a person and not a lecturer. someone with real problems and a life. not someone you see once a week for a lecture.

was just sitting at the same table with him on international night too. he was still asking me all about food in singapore and stuff like that. the best part was during the quiz. it was funny how micha3l, his wife and my prof were trying to answer the qns so diligently. the interaction we had among us is probably something you'll never find in singapore. there were no barriers to communication and it really felt like home.

the funniest thing that i can rmb would be an1ta telling him that p@trick went to an adult shop! HAHA that was cos she didnt know that he was the chaplain! damn funny la! my prof was like "p@trick.. i didnt know..." with the smirk on his face. :P p@trick is a postgrad student who was the previous dean of l@w at a msian uni. but it was out of curiosity and not that he needed anything. :)) but yeah we joked about it and laughed it all off.

how would you want people to remember you when you pass away? do you regret not saying anything? he asked me how i found his lessons and i just laughed. its weird. how would you feel if you knew that those lessons were going to be the last that you ever had? how would you feel if you knew that that was going to be your last meal, words, call, email, blog post, car ride, person you see, thoughts?

its scary isnt it? the uncertainty of death. yet its as certain as the sun rising from the east. maybe its better for him to die. i hope he died peacefully. i hope he's up in heaven enjoying a painless eternal life. may you rest in peace sir.

food i've eaten!

1. kway chap
2. beef noodle
3. minced pork noodle dry and soup
   
4. chicken rice
5. rojak
6. popiah
7. tau suan
8. korean pork hotplate
9. kimchi soup
10. roti prata
11. nasi briyani
12. laksa
13. mee jiang kueh
14. carrot cake
15. tutu cake
16. avocado milkshake
17. shui jing bao
18. soon kueh
19. macs fries and ice cream
20. sambal kangkong
21. nasi lemak
22. fish soup + rice
23. kaya toast
24. char kway teow
25. hokkein mee
26. sugar cane juice
27. curry fish head
28. sambal stingray
29. mala hotpot
30. chendol
31. cheng ting
32. bubur titam
33. fried wanton
34. soy bean milk
35. chin chow
36. tau huay
37. nonya zhang

isnt a lot la. still got a lot a lot more that i want to eat!

1. pig organ soup
2. indian rojak
3. ban mian
4. nasi padang
5. sambal sotong
6. fish head steamboat
7. coffee porkribs
8. bak kut teh
9. sweet sour pork
10. hot plate tofu
11. ...
12. ...
13. ...
    

things to do when i get home

1. eat all the yummy hawker food!
2. go to sakura
3. go for threading with sinhui
4. scuba diving!
5. go out with pam and ruth
6. go out with s13 peeps
   
7. sushi buffet with yj and ness
8. cut my hair!
9. shopping!
10. visit rgs
11. mala huoguo!
12. visit relatives
13. go swimming
14. go out with random friends!
15. watch all my movies and shows!
16. idp pre-departure briefing
17. go cycling/roller blading
18. drive!
19. play ps2
20. update my computer
21. go popular!
22. go daiso!
23. play mahjong!
24. eat bbq!
25. relax and not think about school for the next 3 weeks!
    

went up to mt wellington! omg it was sooo cold! heard from emm@ that there was snow up there so we rushed up and YES there was snow! aka patches of ice on top. hehe even though it was quite zzz but it was still snow i suppose! cos its not going to snow in hobart unless something freaky happens. considering its supposed to be cold now but its not.

the road up was so long and windy. at some points if u turned around and looked behind the car, you would think that something will just pop out and scare the wits outta you! its like the evil forest in snow white!

reached the top and at first r7an was like "aiyah not cold at all. dont need jacket." next moment you know, he's clammouring into the car reaching for his jacket and because it wasnt warm enough, he kept sitting in the car.. hahah! the view on the way up was splendid! the shots we took didnt do them justice at all so we gave up after a while. the stars were magical man. u wouldnt see that in singapore. they were so bright and clear and it was AWESOME! but it was too cold to linger too long. christin@ and i were alright except for my nose which wasnt covered but the others were a little underdressed. HAHAHA. my cheeks were like damn cold and then when u touch, its like damn smooth cos very cold. :P

the picture of us holding up the 'snow/ice" was really funny. cos sinhu1 and i had gloves but chri5 didnt so he was using his bare hands. and christin@ took a while to take the photo. poor chri5' fingers were going to fall off! its bad enough without gloves. he still had to hold an ice block! HAHAH! after we took the shot he threw the block down and was like "wahlau ehh damn cold la! my fingers....." :))

but yes it was one hell of a great experience! we were saying we'll go up again in july (which is even colder!) and see if there's more snow or wadsoever up there!! yay~!

IT'S AWAKE!!!!! OMG OMG OMG!

thank goodness! that was a BAD scare!

i think my laptop just died on me! it refuses to turn itself on! which is terribly disgusting considering i need my laptop badly now since i need to access that pathology cd and virtual microscopy! :( i really hope it will wake up by the time i get back to it again.

so now im stuck in the library trying to copy the pathology cd onto a thumbdrive so that it wouldnt be so noisy. i hate how cd-roms are so noisy when they are reading something. and i dont like how it lags and whirls when you load something. argh. irritating. so yes i am being anal bout this but i cant stand laggy things! even worse since my com is now kaputt.

just realised how dependent i am on my laptop. i think w/o it (aka now) i will just shrivel up and die from lack of social activity. just realised how ironic that statement is but surfing facebook, browsing blogs, updating blogs, chatting on msn are actually a social activities themselves. look how times have changed. being overseas before meant long waits for letters and expensive phone calls but now its just msn/facebook/email etc

technology can be such a pain when my laptop dies! ok im just ranting. i am soooo pissed off! i cant believe it can die just like that! it was alright last nite before i packed them into the bag so that i can bring it to the reading room. but to my horror, it didnt turn on! HORRIBLE!!!! argh im at my wits ends man.. luckily i am going back soon. bring that laptop back and see wads wrong with it.. zzz.. kabish!