and i arise from a month's long hibernation. today marks the end of the winter season. actually it's been spring all along, just that the day suddenly became unbearably hot today. like living in an oven, not a single breeeze.
well last fri was the end of the semester for me, our last day of year 1 med1022. (: how cool is tt.! cos it means that the study break is here and exams are approaching. it seems like this sem has breezed past just so quickly. n i still cannot register a single significant event that has happened.
it definitely has been one hectic year i must say, though boring most of the time. n hiding from the freezing cold weather. but today marks a new beginning or an end you call it, to this year's madness. well, i definitely cant wait to be back home. slacking ard, or just doing nothing in a familiar envt sure feeels much better.
and for the time being, i'm still trying to get used to this heat in used-to-be-cold melbourne. and it seems like everyone's runnign outta energy at this time. maybe its just approaching the end of the year or maybe, it's just the season. but either way, the exams sure are freaking everyone out. too much to do, too little time.
charmie
5:00 AM
the sky starts to turn dark later these days. perhaps a sign tt winter's coming to an end. (: today was 6pm, n during july was 5pm... (: sweeet. i love it when the sun's up, makes the day seem much longer. remembered during summer, it was still bright at 8pm.... really weird.
heh.. did my laundry on sat.. n while folding the clothes.. i found an underwear tt wasnt mine... like really disgusted. couldnt imagine it tumbling around w my clothes n all... so i threw them away... just too bad for the guy w one missing underwear.. (: but i aint gonna find out whose it is!
charmie
4:03 AM
went to church. lee hwa decided to give me her old tv n a rice cooker! so nice of her. helena then drove me back fm church today w the stuffs! then i rushed to helped out at open day... signed up for it w john who later backed out.. but wan jie took his place! was kinda fun w loads of ks ppl asking the usual meddie questions. also gotta meet many year 1 med students who i never knew existed! heh!!! plus some year 2 n 3..!! (: coool!
n happy birthday Ze Peng!! (:
charmie
7:08 AM
jia n i went to the city today to meet ee fung, jun jia n jan! it was fun gg to chapel street n looking at all the pretty stuff. they had lunch at TGI Friday which had really beautiful interior deco. jan had a burger, ee fung n jun jia had nachos, jia had fish n chips while i had a choc fudge smoothie. (: we also ordered buffalo wings... delicious! (: n while i was there, i found a quirky shop tt sold those pretty lil light-up heart-shaped rings tt are sold at iamkikix!!! like so oh-my-gosh CHEAP $4 n she's making so much of a profit out of it!!! tsk! also, there's this dog-fart extinguisher... SO cute! it's a small lil can shaped like a fire extinguisher n w how-to-use instructions. apparently, it can be used to put out human fart too!! (: way TOO COOOL! (: n it's only for $4! they also sold lil chain of lights... with monsters on them, pretty lil things for room decor!
then we trotted along back to melb central to myers where they had their final clearance so i got white leggings n a belt for $2 each... reallly SUPER cheap. actually wanted to get a pair of pants from Industrie for $30 but i realised tt i alr have a black pants. (:
also, i'll be waiting for diva to have their next sale to get loads of other nice designs too!! then before heading back, jia n i popped by at aldi to get all my week's groceries...! n good thing i had my country road bag along to hide all the ugly looking groceries... cos aldi do not provide plastic bags. got3kg of oranges for $1.50!!! (: wooootS! apparently, i couldnt squeeze the oranges in, so mua was hugging the load of oranges back to melb central.! while jia had a good load of paper towels which looked very much like toilet paper in her arms too! so hilarious... then we started posing in the train station while waiting for the train to arrive, kinda hilarious! (:
charmie
5:08 AM
Rural Placement at Warragul
going to warragul for a week has definitely made me think abt practising medicine in the rural areas, or maybe even doing rural for year 3.we started off early on monday 31july n took the V-line train from clayton. it was fun as monash had booked the tix for us all.. so all the medicine students actually travelled tgt on the same train, dropping us off at diff rural locations. ours wasnt too far off from clayton- only 1 hr ride down, while the rest had a longer ride on the train. it was cool just looking out the window, the vast green grass n occassional cows grazing ard.
the monash facilitators at warragul station were there to welcome us n we headed straight to our accomodation- Caravan Park & retirement village. it was a great quiet lil place, sth like a park, with small single houses by itself. ivie, wan jie n i shared a house. monday didn have too much of activities for us. it was mainly discussion for PCL n a talk by the emergency services forum given by the police, ses,rav and cfa. we were then fetched to the nearest safeway to stock up our supply of food for the week. (: daniel, lestern richard, wanjie n i decided to have a mass cooking session. so we shared our groceries... n just had to put our skills tgt to make all the wonderful meals!
tues was when the fun started. i was taken to education centre w wanjie while the rest of the groups were split n brought to diff locations to see the diff services. then we had a GP forum where we had a lil discussion w Dr Jenny Eury abt the rural life n her experience as a rural doctor. the year 3s medicine students doing the course at Warragul also invisted us for dinner. we had a night of fun- loads of pizzas n soft drinks n we had a great time chatting w them abt their experience of learning in the rural areas... apparently, it turned out to be q a good one, w much much more opportunity to learn new stuff n to be on the medical team n actually assist in the treatment as the no. of students there were lesser. so they got to learn more things.
wed: charmaine went aloneto the Baw Baw communtiy Care Centre- occupational therapy & physio dept where i had a nice chat with the physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social worker n they piled me w loads of info. then i followed danielle- a physiotherapist to 2 elderly women's home on her usual home visits in the countryside. the scenery was fantastic. loads of greeen grasss, n the layering of hills, n w cows scattered n left grazing the fields... magnificient sight... we took a while getting to their houses which was situated so far off the main road... n i obviously had a great time just admiring the scenery. (: it's fantastic. i vow to buy one of those property for my retirement one day... just too goood to be liviing there, so much fresher air, clean n crisp. the cottage we finally arrived in was a quaint lil one, w sweet countryside home interior furnishings, loads of nice lil photos frames, table liners n all- belonging to a sweet lil 90 year old lady. danielle did her usual therapy exercises while i just watched her... (: in the afternoon, the group of us were brought to Warragul hospital where we were given a tour of the hospital n it's services. it wasnt as busy as we tot it was. n we also visited melissa Fitzgerald's father's office(he's a physician working there). we then had a treat fm Melissa's father at the courthouse. it was fine dining w delicious main course. i hadCourthouse lasagna which was good! well, at least sth different. her dad also invited one of his colleagues a psychiatrist. (: pretty cool... so we had a nice session of get together w her parents n heard many interesting stories from them! (:
thurs started off well... w a visit to the saleyard- Choppers and Bulls. a place where the cows were sold. farmers would usually sell their cows when they were not working as effectively as before or producing milk as effectively before. they were then put into pens according to where they came from, a tagged on the ears. it was interesting as we got to see how these cows were then resold to other farmers or representatives from the abatoirs. once the cow was resold, it will be painted on it's back as a note n they were then divided accordingly to which farmer bought him. the remaining will then be brought away to be slaughtered. they did not have the slaughterhouse there, apparently they had one in melb. kinda gross when we were told of the process. the cows were pushed onto trucks n carried away. the bulls were of a muhc larger size n were sold for a higher price as most of them were able to work on the farms. we were much fascinated by how the cow pooed n peeed. n learned tt they were q scared of humans. when the group of us moved from pen to pen, the cows will then gather n congregate in a herd n move to the extreme other end of the pen -as if to avoid us... -defensive action i call it. then Anne and Steve kindly inserted another activity for us, which is to visit the Warragul & district Specialist School where we got loads of info from them abt the facilities they provide for the rural area for a child with DS. after that, we headed to the Disability Services school, where we got a chance to try out being visually impaired, or wheelchair bound. (: it was cool as it gave us the opportunity to realise wad an inconvenience it is to be born w a disability n how often we overlook the fact of the easiness we can do things. it made me so much more thankful of wad i have n am given n just to treasure the things i can do while i'm still young. it also made me realise how selfish the society has been in terms of providing help n facilities for these people. much as the gvt (s'pore / aust) has been promoting on it's increased infrastructure in wheelchair facilities, it actually isnt much. n one somtimes wonder wad limited services can a wheelchair person utilise given tt most of the places are not suitable for wheelchair use. eg, the slopes in NUS arts canteen are for wheelchair use. but by the looks of it, the steepness can make one wonder wad an idiot the architect is. i've tried it n i know... even how gradual a slope is, it takes so much effort just to roll oneself up a slope. wad more of it's a steep slope. n then i look again at those overhead bridges w the long ramps that goes all the way up... n i sometimes wonder if it REALLY is for show. as it is really nearly impossible to roll oneself up such a slope.
n indeedn in such a shoirt time frame of 5 days has made me learned loads of things. from being such a complacent, take for-granted attitude... i finally realise the nitty gritty of life, n the effort taken by so many people just to get the steak on the table. how can one ever dare to complain about food? or even waste it?
charmie
12:12 AM
(: it's a goooooood day! on fri night, alex decided to help me clear my com of all the virus... n it's a weee bit faster. heh... but the funny thing is, he's always asking me if i got any pretty frens, so i decided to show him my facebook with all my pretty frens n their photos... n he started rating them LAH!! muahahaa.. it's hilarious hearing his version/views n things he'd say w his frens when they're out clubbing n a girl walks by. it's funny in his ah-beng lingo.
oh wells, today went for church early in the morning. our sunday gang to church is getting biggetr. first it was just me only, then paul, then kaiwen n damien. now there's john as well. n ze peng's trying out our church tooo!! (: coool!! got more ppl gg to citylife now!! it's great!
the sermon today was great, preached by Ted! he's great! he spoke abt working in a hostile envt n the thing is not to quit ur job, but to persevere, not to let the envt influence you, but to fight it. cos it's like a situation w 2 outcomes. God put us in this situation for us to overcome n once we do it, we've grown to be much stronger. but if we back out n find a simpler job, then we're not learning. he also spoke abt how to live in a hostile envt. though the stress at work might get into you, dun let it overcome ur life. in fact, dun "download" all ur burdens at work, n not go to work n expect ppl to solve ur probs, but to go to work n solve the probs at work, for others. the "downloading" shld be done at church, in ur caregroup. n when you return to work, just concentrate on doing ur job. n if there are gossip gg ard, dun participate in it, unless you have sth positive to say. cos by participating in it, n just hearing stuff fm others, it's like letting the envt get into you, n polluting urself. ted's an excellent speaker indeed!
then i popped by the kids section to visit lee hwa, we psoke for q a whilen she says she's gonna give me a tv and a rice cooker!! how coool is tt!? heh! (:
then i scooted off w the rest, they had lunch at glen waverley. but i headed to southland for some shopping alone. somehow, i like to be by myself. n shop at my own pace (which is really fast) did abit of shopping at southland, then headed to DFO cheltenham. initially i took the wrong bus which headed in the opp direction, but i managed to get myself back to southland where i finally reached DFO!!! it's coool. got a Country Road blue duffle bag for sch, n shoes for clinicals for the coming week.... nice n flat n cheap. $10!! (: actually there was one $9 black pumps at southland but i tot black was abit too common, n it wasnt tt comfy either! after DFO, i headed back to southland n looked ard abit more, before heading home! (:
gg for SEF cakenight later!!! wad a nice way to end the weekend! apparently, i think this whole week will be kinda a FUN FILLED week! cos it's like a holiday for all the med students! some student gg to mildura get to take a small plane there... how cool is tt?! heh... but warragul is good enuff!! they say it's slightly colder, but i shld be alright. managed to borrow a handcarry bag fm alex on sat... he's q nice actually! apart fm his ah beng-ness which i CANNOT get used to.
charmie
1:41 AM
h a p p y 2 1 s t
b i r t h d a y
h u i l i n g !
love,
charmie
charmie
5:28 AM
