As one door closes, another opens

I know I haven't been updating for ages now. There have been some incidences that do merit blogging about but I just never got around to doing it - sigh, procrastination rears its ugly head. Anyways, today marks the last day we (Leng Hui and I) are staying in our current place. The landlord is returning tomorrow and we gotta scram.

Fortunately we have found a new place. Unfortunately it's unfurnished. Fortunately we got the necessities already. Unfortunately a lot of them require assembly. Fortunately we were able to take some time off from the hospital. Unfortunately we won't have power for another day or two.

Fortunately my baggage is still around 2 luggage bags give or take a few plastic bags for notes and etcetera.
Unfortunately my housemates' is around a tonne - mm...a few luggage bags, 3 IKEA bags, a DHL box and more...should take some pics of them.
Fortunately I don't have to move them by myself.
Unfortunately I still have to help move them....why do women have to have so many things?

..anyone who can answer the question above should write a book explaining it to the practical male mind.
...assuming the answer, in itself, has some practical sense in it that is.

Anyhoo, we probably won't have internet (or a phone line for that matter) for some days after we move in so no updates for a bit after this.
I promise I'll put up some things in the near future.

ARGH!!!

It's bloody 0340 and I'm still awake. The reason being an insanely itchy scalp which annoyingly decided to pay me a visit just when I wanted to sleep. Tossed and turned...and scratched for what seemed ages before finally giving up.

So I went outside and took an antihistamine in hopes that it would help. Then I sat myself in front of my com and searched the net for possible causes and treatments for it.

Well, I actually already pretty much knew the causes already but just to double check. Seems like I could have developed a case of psoriasis of the scalp, or it could be ringworm, or a different presentation of eczema (which is supposedly pronounced 'eks-mah' over here). Worst case scenario would be head lice - which I'm definitely sure I don't have.
The most likely cause would be winter itch, with winter being all cold and dry after all. But it's been dry all the while I've been here so why only recently?

Whatever.

So I read up on some possible treatments which included topical steroids for the scalp (eczema treatment) and I wondered how was I supposed to get it on my scalp with all the hair around. Tea Tree Oil apparently helps with the itch as well. Then there was one which said to "massage warm olive oil into your scalp, leave for 10 mins, then wash as normal". That raised an eyebrow.

So anyway, I decided to just wash my head, hoping that that would somehow help somewhat. Then after washing I decided to try an experiment - I used my 'Dry, Scaly and Itchy skin cream' on the dry, (?scaly?) and itchy parts of my scalp. Whether or not it actually got to my scalp remains unknown though. The irony of it? Immediately after applying the cream I had to scratch my head again.

Now it's better. The itch isn't really gone, more like really dulled so it's loads more bearable. I can say I was so close to doing the olive oil thingy and just apologising to Leng Hui when she gets back (since the olive oil is hers). Man I'm so gonna go get me a bottle of anti-itch shampoo later today...assuming I'm awake at all later today.

*grumble grumble*

...

So Leng Hui has gone home for 2 weeks. And I've been under the weather lately. Not sure if it's just the cold weather or because I really am coming down with something but I've been tired out and sleeping like a bear lately...not to mention an upset stomach too.

You really don't appreciate what you have until you lose it. An all too well-known phrase yet taken for granted. Yes, I colonize the hall cuz my room is...well let's say it isn't all to comfortable for studying. So the living room becomes the place where I do most things. And Leng Hui stays in her room most of the time, studying, cooking porridge on the phone and whatnots.

I suppose I take some comfort in the fact that there is someone else in the house with me, who I can talk to and well, basically interact with even though the main time we see each other is during dinner and breakfast...and sometimes lunch at the hospital (which is not really surprising since we come home at around 5+ normally).
To cut a long(er) story short, I am feeling the loss of her presence here. Somehow the place feels the same yet different....and no, in case any of you are wondering I don't have that kind of feelings towards her.

I suppose this comes about from growing up in a family with a sibling. Although everyone has different schedules, we all come home eventually, even if it's late at night. It's no secret that I don't exactly have a good relationship with my brother but...I guess the best way to put it is that I draw some comfort from having someone else around me in the house, even if it is my brother.

I must say that this is the 1st time I'm really feeling that I'm overseas - alone and fending for myself...I wanna go home - to my family, my pets, my friends...the food :)
and the piano.
It's not all that bad I guess, there's still some people I know here. Not all of them have gone home.

~That which does not kill you makes you stronger~

Randomness

For some reason unbeknown to me, my housemate has decided to ask me one random question a week. Well, so far she has been trying and making up for some lost weeks. Pity I can't remember those early questions. Anyways, let's start a list :)

1. Do you drool in your sleep?
2. Can you burp the ABC?
   

Zha Tou

I've had this really good consultant during my stint in Neurology. There were no problems whatsoever during our ward rounds. However, somehow, along the way he seems to have mixed up my name and someone else's. Now whenever we have clinical sessions with him (we as in the entire group of us doing our MHUs) he calls me David - without fail.
The rest find it really amusing, especially since I had him for 3 weeks in Neuro.
Today was our 3rd or 4th session with him, and seriously I expected him to get my name right this time round...seeing how I tactfully reminded him that I'm not 'David' the past few times.

Well, I wasn't surprised in the least when
"Alright David. Your turn" (we were taking turns doing reflexes)
...*I paused waiting for group to stop laughing*...
"...Ken"
"Oh that's right! Why do I keep calling you David? I haven't the faintest idea"

So we went through the session - I was pretty good at it :) Well, all of us were pretty good at it actually, he said so himself :)
Anyways, at the end as we were washing our hands I said goodbye to him. And he replied:
"Bye, David (intentional)"
"Maybe I should give you a new name too" *I grin*
"Maybe. But I'm the consultant." *grins back*

...ouch

Updates, updates

It's official. Sick season is fast moving in. Every other person I meet is either sniffling or coughing. I wasn't spared either - was down with the typical non-specific illness symptoms a few days back. Ended up skipping hospital to sleep at home for about half the day. And even when I was awake I had to wear my jacket cuz I was feeling cold. In the end, I decided "screw this" and started to train. Wonder of wonders I felt much better after that.
The next day however, my current registrar and consultant told me I don't look too well. And that I should go home for some rest. They were also afraid they might contract whatever it is I had since at the moment, the Coronary Care Unit is only the consultant, registrar and RMO. Anyway I had to leave for a tute so I left :)

Today we threw a surprise birthday party for Su Chuen, masterminded by Jebbrine and gang. Was told, in no uncertain terms that it was to be "hush-hush". I wasn't overly concerned since I'm pretty sure they could keep her out of the loop.
Apparently they got her into the room, and to keep her in the room, Jebbrine started screaming whenever Chu-Chu went near the doorknob. Eventually she was said to have rolled around on the bed screaming... o_O"

Anyway, the surprise was a success. Christine held her lit cake while waiting for her. When she came out she was shocked :) She gushed "OMG. I never expected this. etcetc". Then she made a wish and blew out the candles....and then the smoke alarm went off! Hilarious and quite potong stim as well. Fortunately they managed to turn it off before the main alarm was triggered, else we would be celebrating with firefighters as well :P
Chu-Chu giving her speech: "I'd like to thank my mother, my father, my pet goldfish..."

*Yes I know that's one of Eve's favourite lines. I'm just waiting for the day someone actually says that for a celebratory occasion*

The cake was so fantastic! Chocolate cake with fudge covering topped with tonnes of chocolate chips! Lovely stuff. Anyways after the pigging out session, we were entertained with the birthday girl strumming some songs on her guitar. After which Kian and Paul took over, Paul seemingly having a preference for Britney Spears songs. That was hilarious too.
Daniel arrived a little later bringing with him funny pics taken when they all went for some cricket session at Glenelg some time back.
The chocolate mud cake topped with chocolate fudge topped with chocolate chips topped with multicoloured candles arranged in the shape of 2 2s by Christine and Shiau Cern.


The girls.


And guys.

I'd put up the group picture of the guys and girls too but these are clearer.

On the way back to the house, I spotted a shooting star. How wonderful it was to catch a glimpse of an event that lasted a fraction of a second. I've been hoping to see one ever since I came here.

Good Grief

That was taken some time back when my cousin got married. Leng Hui saw this photo and told me:
"Eh...that guy looks so much like you!!"

I stared at her, a little disbelieving at what I heard.

..............."That is me."

She took a closer look, "Oh ya hor. Hahahahaha etc."

?Grossness

Specially for the unbelieving or just simply curious. So I shall walk you through the picture because I'm being nice :)
That's me holding a dustpan and my phone for size comparison. In the dustpan you can see the accumulation of 4 days' worth of floor sweeping. I don't have a zoomed-in pic, but believe it or not, I'm sure that more than 80% of that dust there happens to be skin flakes from yours truly. Surprised? I was too when I 1st came over - it either doesn't happen back home or I don't really notice it. But I've gotten so used to it.
Guess my theory that I constantly eat is because I constantly need energy for regeneration holds some water after all.
Actually, now I'm eating on an almost constant basis - hypothesized that I need the extra energy for heat production now that winter is coming.
Plus a few days back, I weighed myself on our scale and it told me I lost 1 kilo!
If this keeps up, I'm gonna be all skin and bones by the time winter is through. GG.

Adelaide's Weird and Wonderful

Adelaide's Weird and Wonderful is gonna be a post describing the out-of-the-ordinary occurences that we (will)experience during our time here.

• Flies in Adelaide are fannoying! Here the flies are so damn persistent that no amount of shaking, flailing or moving will deter them. They'll land on all the most annoying parts of your face like eyes, lips, ears and stay there. However, persistent they may be but slow they also are. They move like the mozzies back home so one can actually swat them.
  Sure some might say it's disgusting but I'd rather they be dead than bothering me.
  I'm actually doing Adelaide a service then because on the average, I've killed 3 flies per day since I've been here. Today was the highest count of 5 in the span of an hour...wonder if I can get paid for this?
  Note : For some weird reason the flies are mainly attracted to the males. Confirmed by the M204s who recently joined us.
• 16th February 2007 - late night 0300
  still awake due to excessive warmth, only managed to fall asleep around this time. Woke up surprised as I didn't hear my alarm ring only to find out that I had woken up an hour earlier than planned (0830). Couldn't go back to sleep cuz too warm so went and started cleaning the house for lack of better things to do...
  
• 17th February 2007 - It's so hot that I can't study, it's so hot that I just feel like sleeping, it's so hot that I can't sleep! HELP! Too kiamsap to use the aircon. Heh, well I don't think that will be a problem ever again.
• KFC here is just as bad if not worse than back home. Think I already mentioned this before but what the heck. It's tasteless and the pedas-ness is not pedas at all. Not even remotely close. Of course it could just be a coincidence but since Leng Hui also had some which was similar I think it's safe to say what I just did.
• McDonald's here serve smaller portions than back home. Bryan totally agrees with me on this. Back home I could not open my mouth big enough to eat a Big Mac. Here it fits nicely into my mouth. No I'm sure my mouth has not gotten bigger. I upgraded my meal to a large...and I wasn't full when I finished! At least at the one back home I'd be full.
  Oh yeah. They don't have the pump dispenser for ketchup or chili sauce either. Apparently, according to Bryan anyway, you gotta pay for the chili sauce here. Talk about weird.
• 3rd May 2007 - Bryan, Rahul, Leng Hui and myself went to watch Spiderman 3 on it's opening night here. Can you say the word ulu? There was no phone or internet booking for tickets (we didn't need to anyway, the cinema was less than half-filled). The tickets were similar material to the receipts you get at supermarkets. The seats had no cup-holders. Thankfully the screen was clear and the sound was crisp even though the speakers were those large amplifier-like boxes hanging from the walls.
  

...

They say dreams are our subconscious interpreting events or working out unsettled stuff in our minds as we sleep. They could also be some kind of sign, or in some cases a premonition of sorts.
I wonder what my dreams could mean...

Original post 3rd May 2007
I've had this weird dream recently where I met this guy who seemed oddly familiar.
I'm pretty sure I don't know him and haven't seen him before.
The setting was in some university, I believe it was IMU.
Don't remember conversations but he was easy to talk to.
Found out that he stays very near my home, just the next street in fact.

And for some unknown reason, it feels disturbing.

2nd post 5th May 2007
A few nights later, there's another one with a morbid tone:
A group of us were having this party in a grand apartment somewhere. Somehow I know it's located on the 10th floor of a building. The wall which faces the outside of the building is not a wall. In fact there's nothing there - just a big gaping hole. The surprising thing is that nobody else seems to take notice of it, if at all.
The party goes on, everyone has fun but me cuz I keep looking at the hole wondering why nobody else is bothered about it. I have a bad feeling...
Someone backs up against the 'wall', sorta like he's shy of having his picture taken or realising he's gonna be the victim of a prank...then he steps into thin air...
Time seemed to slow down, I could see the look of utmost surprise on his face.
We all rushed to the hole and saw him falling slowly.
Someone laughed. Can't remember exactly who. Seemed that person thought it was some kind of joke before realizing what happened. Then everyone rushed down. Everyone but me.
I just sank to the floor in stunned silence.

Mini-ramble

It's cold. It's dark. It's gloomy.
There.
That pretty much sums up the current weather we're having here. Actually it kinda sucks since I'm so used to sunlight, so much so that my circadian rhythm is heavily dependent on it. Hence I'm getting sleepy at hours which are far too early for my liking. Only last Sunday, I spent more than 10 hours in bed...which is so wrong as I normally spend less than 7. I suppose the upside of that is the wonderful warm and cozy feeling when it's cold outside and you're snug under your quilt with a small 'boiler' in your room.
My uncle casually mentioned that if I think this is bad, wait till June 21st when the shortest day in this part of the world will occur. Whoopee. I can't wait.
Sigh, the gloominess isn't helping in academic areas either...

I've made a new friend too. His name is coffee. I get a little help from him each morning now. It's either that or I walk around the hospital zombified for the entire morning.

I suppose that some good has come from this. My body has been slowly adjusting to the weather here - I don't flake nearly as much as I used to and my skin looks closer to normal than ever, probably from the lack of allergens here and the cool weather. Either that or I'm taking extra care of my skin.
Also getting used to the cold in general. When we had a warm spell a couple of weekends ago, somewhere around 29-30 degrees, I was positively uncomfortable. Now I wonder how badly I'll be affected when I go home to the heat, humidity and pollution.

Edit: For some reason unknown to me, my skin has been flaring up again. It doesn't make sense since I'm away from known allergens and it's been raining for the past week or so, so it can't be the dryness...unless I'm also allergic to humidity, in which case I'm just so doomed :(

~Post removed at readers' request~

2 Months On...

Kinda hard to believe but 9 weeks have since passed since we 1st started our rotations here in Adelaide. Time really does fly when you're having fun and being busy. Contrary to what Jebbrine keeps complaining about (that the people in Perth are having so much fun), I believe we're having a pretty good time here as well. I foresee an interesting 3 years ahead of us.

The past 9 weeks were routine, to say the least. I'm the weird one in the entire group as I normally wake up at 0500, either to cook or train...sometimes both(if I happen to be making a really simple dish).

Unfortunately the admin split us into M104s in surgery and the M204s in medicine. So we were basically mostly interacting with the people we already knew. But of course there were many occasions where we all had fun together.
Over these 9 weeks I believe we've all grown closer as a group...of course nowhere near what some of us were part of but everything has to start somewhere no? Jebbrine is the best example, she has seemlessly integrated into the household of Christine, Steph, Chu-Chu and Shiau Cern and it's obscenely obvious they're influencing each other.
We (very) recently celebrated passing our 1st rotation! Man it was fun! The aforementioned household is full of wacky people, more wacky than the people I used to hang out with. GG. Imagine that. If you don't believe me go visit Steph and Chu-Chu.

So yeah, I passed my 1st rotation. We were assessed in many different areas. It's so annoying that we're the 'guinea pig' batch as they introduced all new ways of assessments this year. I think it's a curse of our year. As far as I can remember(all the way back to high school), my batch was always the ones either being the last year for a certain exam or the 1st one.

They introduced this weekly online assessment, which was basically a weekly 10 MCQs, in IMHO some questions were really unfair. But as they said, it's a test run thing so it didn't bear much weight. There was also an End of Rotation assessment, which was a 50 MCQ online which was last Friday. Most of the weight came from a Ward Assessment, which basically means your team confers and decides (many different criteria) if you pass or fail.
I got my latest assessment form back (my earlier unit was handed up long ago) and looked at the comment section of the form. There, my consultant had written something.
At first glance it was complete gibberish, I couldn't understand anything he had written. Further proof that most doctors have horrible writing ('bad' is reserved for my dad, whose writing I can usually read :D sorry about that :D). Finally after half a day I finally deciphered what comment the head of my unit wrote:
"Improved with time"
....
it was either that or "diagnosed with lice"
I'm definitely inclined to go with the former.

Mamak Nite

Today there was Mamak Nite. Basically it's like a dinner gathering of Malaysians and Singaporeans. It cost $8 per entry and we were served some roti canai, and there were coupons for a plate of nasi lemak, and 2 teh tariks.
Most of us went, guess it's the craving for some Malaysian cuisine (it was quite good btw). Sat at the table together with Christine, Steph, Su Chuen, Rahul, Bryan, Leng Hui and 2 of Christine's church friends. Chris was ber-security-ing and Sheng Kai and Jebbrine gave up their places to do something at home...presumably studying.

Anyway, each table was given a question sheet, kinda like trivia with loads of weird questions ranging from where the NATO HQ is located to how many brains a stegosaurus had. Each person was also given a piece of paper to write his/her name and email for a lucky draw, Grand prizes of a USB pendrive and an IPOD shuffle....I didn't win any :(
So we discussed the trivia cases of which I contributed to one correct answer:
George Lucas named his adventure hero Indiana Jones after what?
Correct answer: His dog *grins*

So after answering all the questions Rahul, ever confident, professed that our table would win and wrote on the question sheet:
WINNING ENTRY TABLE 9

After the organisers collected the sheets, "the core church band" came up and sang a couple of songs ending with a nice version of Innuendo's Belaian Jiwa. Post performance they announced the correct answers for the trivia.
Lo and behold, to our greatest surprise our table actually won a prize!!!
It was a surprise as we kept score and were sure we didn't get so many correct *shhhh don't tell anyone*
Heh, after a little discussion we attributed the win to the fact that Rahul had written "winning entry" on the paper and the committee took it at face value :D
The prize was a couple of packs of TimTams...so no big loss to the other tables :P

Bryan as usual was bermacho-ing wearing short sleeves when everyone else was in sweaters. Near the end I asked him how he tolerates the cold, to which he replied:
"My nipples are gonna fall off"
Well, the answer was intentioned for me, but unfortunately the whole table heard it and started laughing. Then Chu-Chu(Rahul has renamed Su Chuen...isn't this great? We had a Che Chu and now we have a Chu-Chu) laughingly repeated "My nipples are gonna fall off."
So then I asked her (pretending to be shocked) "Yours too?!"
...to which the whole table started laughing again.

Oh yeah, had a mock OSCE today, especially for the IMU students. I'm happy that they're taking good care of us here :)
In case anyone was wondering, it was 4 stations : 2 histories, 1 PE and 1 data interpretation. It went well except for the data interpretation, which had an ECG and a Spirometry test result which I have never seen before in my life.
Well, we should learn about that fairly soon, no worries :)

Quotes of the Day

Intend to update this entry frequently. Well, at least as frequently as I get these 'wonderful' quotes :)

1. "I'm going to print an empty sheet of paper" - Cheok Soon, May 2006
2. "Oh look! It's Mah Jee Ken!" - Vanessa, everytime she sees me
3. "Throw at dog, dog also die" - Eve, on my Nokia 3310
4. "A hen is male, right?" - Siddharth, eating breakfast at Food Avenue, 22 May 2006
5. "Your carapace keeps you warm." - Tony, after watching X3 in a freezing GSC, 27 May 2006
6. "You are enlightened." - Chu Kin told me after I put my bag down, May 2006
7. "Uncle is a relative word...my uncle is my relative." - Chu Kin, 1 June 2006
8. "We have a buy-back policy : If you buy it don't bring it back." - The Bard's Tale, InXile Entertainment
   
9. Sign seen on a hawker stall: PENANG LOBAK : Pork RM2, Crap RM2 etc. (wouldn't wanna eat there o_O)
10. "This glue is pretty good - it's quite sticky." - Henry of VK Bookstore. (courtesy of Cheok Soon)
11. 'We serve real food. Visually fat free. 100% Skin free.' - Advert for a pie shop
12. "...you know the toils of summatives, KKB, EoS3, and although it was fun I'm afraid our journey ends here, our last battle. So lets enjoy the moment, knowing that if we walked into IMU together, we shall leave together as well. Nobody gets left behind." - Cheok Soon, on the impending EoS5. A mirror of my own thoughts and emotions of the said day
13. "We've come this far together to forge a future that is our own. The last battle is here and now. Fear not! We shall not fall! I bid you fight! Destiny awaits!" - Kah Heng on EoS5
14. "Iced tea, no coffee" - customer. After I stared blankly and uttered a "Huh?" he corrected it to "Iced Coffee, no sugar". (how the heck do you mix those two up?)
15. "I slept with Mike before." - Peter, 25 October 2006. And no it's nothing naughty. He was bunking in Mike's place in Scotland. Lol, but it just sounds so wrong!
    
16. "Evelyn - The Ultimate Duracell Rabbit" - Eve's testimonial by her friend. I LMAO at that due to the fact that it is indeed entirely correct. She just goes on and on and on...
17. "My nipples are gonna fall off" - Bryan on how cold he was on Mamak Nite 24/3/07
18. "Actuarial science is actually science" - Jevanny, circa 2002/03
19. "E-business is business without paper" - Jevanny, crica 2002/03
    

Good Memories

The 'infamous' throw


Hehehe, listen carefully to what sifu has to say


OMG!!! I'm on Youtube!!! I never knew...

Hahndorf

So yesterday Leng Hui and I decided to pay Hahndorf a visit. Jebbrine was too busy berkecoh-ing with the Village people plus they went to church so they didn't tag along. How unlucky...for them that is.
Hahndorf is, supposedly, a German town somewhere about 40 mins from the city. So it's supposed to be famous for the food, or so I heard. I could have gotten my facts wrong. After all I'm just a student who likes to eat.
Ok ok fine. So Yin Yee's parents have a chinese restaurant there. That's another reason why we went :P

Anyway the problem here is that on weekends the buses run less than weekdays so we really had to time our schedule properly. On the way out I noticed the sky was really cloudy - the kind of cloudy that if it were in Malaysia, you would expect heavy rain within the hour. Plus the fact that it was supposed to be kinda chilly according to the weather forecast. And I didn't bring my jacket along...
Seems like I'm slowly getting used to the weather (hopefully, toes and fingers crossed) cuz altho it was cold, more so when the wind was blowing hard, I weathered it without my jacket.
Woohoo!! I have gained Cold Resistance +1!!!

On the bus heading towards Hahndorf, I took out my secret-hopefully-boredom-preventing-item-for-40-minutes-or-so (anyone wanna guess what it is?) and actually stayed awake throughout the trip. That in itself is actually an achievement since I'm so prone to sleeping in public transport. The trip itself was quite nice, kinda like heading from IMU to KKB in a bus. The scenery outside was calming, sorta like on the way to Cameron Highlands, and before long we were at Hahndorf.



















1st thing we saw there was this sign

The chalkboard at the bottom reads:
HOFBR'A'UHAUS
Traditional Bavarian Cuisine.

Heh. We were wondering how in the world
would you pronounce that.

My first impression of Hahndorf was that it was a really nice, quaint little hamlet. It's basically a one road hamlet and the shops on either side are mostly cafes/restaurants and goodie shops. It really reminded me of Cameron Highlands as it was on a hill and the scenery was very green.
As we walked more along the road we came across this shop.














As you can clearly see it's really easy
to tempt me :)

Chocolate Shop!!!
Filled with all things chocolate.
One word describes it : Heaven
The shop had all these funny quotes on
chocolate too.















See, I really wasn't kidding when I
said they sold all things chocolate.

"Death by CHESS"

Not too sure if the board is chocolate but the black and white pieces sure are.
Bad present for me cuz I'll end up eating it and well, what's a chessboard without pieces?




This was on sale too!
Hahaha, we bought one to share :)









Since it's quite impossible to make out from the pic, here's what it said on the box (word for word):

CONFECTIONER ONLY REMEDY
Keep out of reach of chocoholics

BOCHOX (R) 100g NET
--------------------------
active ingredient cocoa solids 70%
For relief from the symptoms of wrinkles and crow's feet
Warning - may cause weight gain if used incorrectly
Directions: Simply break off the desired dosage and consume. You should quickly be overcome by stress-relieveing endorphins and no longer concerned in the slightest about your wrinkles.

IMPORTANT: THIS PACKET IS PROTECTED BY A TAMPER-EVIDENT PAPER WRAP. IF SEAL HAS BEEN BROKEN SUSPECT EVERONE. BOCHOX CAN BE HABIT FORMING.

STORE BELOW 18c

NOT TO BE TAKEN seriously

70% COCOA DARK CHOCOLATE

Fantastic description. There was another 'Emergency Chocolate' too but this was by far the better one. Looked at all the available temptations and finally decided to get myself a Dark Choc Rocky Road (looks like a bunch of marshmallows covered in choc).

Post-temptation attraction, we decided to go pay Yin Yee a visit at the restaurant since I had not had my brekkie and was hungry (you might argue that I'm always hungry but that's debatable). It was really easy to notice her place as it was the only chinese restaurant in the area.
















The sign reads:

HAHNDORF CHINESE RESTAURANT
and some chinese characters which I can't read (but you already knew that)

We went in, saw Yin Yee and had a seat after which she came to ask us what we wanted to eat. We settled for something "without prawns" and "spicy". Then she invited us to go into the kitchen and meet her parents and so we did.
Turns out her parents are from Kampar but have been around, and still speak with an obvious Malaysian accent :) Plus they actually conversed among themselves in cantonese. We had an interesting chat starting off with the typical rapport building stuff. Then we moved on to stuff like landmarks they knew but aren't there anymore, eating places(they actually know where Raju's/Paandi's next to LSPJ is!)(they also know about Ng Tew Lee in Medan Selera *grins*) about places and 'politics' and finally her dad and uncle decided to cook beef wat tan hor and curry laksa for us.

I must say it was the best and most authentic Malaysian food I've ever had since coming here. At that point I told myself that I should go up every month or so for some really good food. It came with sambal and cut red chilli too! Hahaha, instant heaven.















Ahhh yes, the lovely delicious tender beef
wat tan hor.
Notice the placemats seem to be part of some scripture, the teapot and teacups.

The place even had red tanglungs. Really quite authentic.














I was a tad shocked when the curry
appeared. It was chock full with food.
I was actually concerned we might not be able to finish it, then Yin Yee said she told her dad that I "eat a lot". That's why there was so much food.
After that, I had to finish it la. I mean have to give her dad face right? It was delicious anyway.

After that really filling meal, she asked if we wanted dessert so we agreed. It seems that Hanz (one of the 4th years here - a great guy) had this theory that everyone has 2 stomachs. Yep. 1 is your normal stomach and the other is your dessert stomach. Hence everyone can always have dessert no matter how full s/he is. I so totally agreed with that. Oh, the best part is that no matter how much dessert you eat, as long as it ends up in your dessert stomach, the calories don't count! Fantastic!
Anyway, we just asked for a scoop of each of the 4 flavours - they were all heavenly.
Choc fudge, Kahlua, Baileys and Rum & raisin flavours. *drool*

That was the 1st time since coming over that I've eaten so much I couldn't move for a bit.
When we were done, the place had closed for the evening (it would re-open later) so we chatted with Yin Yee and then went for a walk to discover more about the place.














View of a park near the restaurant.
Calming no?
Note: the sky actually was much darker than it seems in the photo.

As we walked around talking, I was looking for a German bakery. Since it's supposed to be a German town/hamlet and I heard German bread was absolutely to die for, I wanted to give it a try. It wasn't to be though as the only bakery we came across only sold the usual stuff.

Went into this shop that sold some really unique stuff like wild hibiscus in syrup (for use with champagne), a whole assortment of Beerenberg items of which Leng Hui bought a Red Wine and Garlic Mustard, very fragrant cinammon sticks and loads more which I can't remember.

Then there was this candle store which sold scented candles which could last forever - the average would be around 100 hours. I believe the largest lasted 400 or so hours. The moment I walked into the store though I was immediately reminded of the departmental stores back home where the entire floor sold perfume.

We also visited this store that sold German sausages. I had a taste of some and bought back a $5 garlic mettwurst (whatever that means, as long as it tastes good). When Leng Hui asked how long it would last, the answer was "ages" and "it just gets harder the longer you keep it". Wow.
Leng Hui got herself a garlic mettwurst too and something called a 'Bum Burner'. That basically looks like a sausage made from cili padi and dried. I had a fingernail-sized piece earlier this evening and, well, suffice to say that if one eats enough of this at one go s/he will definitely end up having a burned bum.















Somewhere up along the road we
came across this store selling funny signs.
Gotta love the Aussie humour.















Yin Yee and Leng Hui posing in front
of a fake horse and carriage.
Yin Yee claims she isn't very photogenic. I see nothing wrong. Sigh...females :P















A quaint old market wagon in
front of a cottage with lotsa flowers in the background.














A nice view of the canopy covering (almost) the entire street.















A German Sign!!!

The only words I can make out are 'Welcome' and 'Hahndorf' though.

No there were no 'one-way road' signs in German unfortunately.

Returning on the other side of the road we came across another sweet shop. Got meself a huge fudge bar for $3. Yummy!
There was also this museum of sorts where they were displaying Aussie aboriginal art which was really nice.

It was towards the end of the trip when we finally decided to get that Bochox. As you can imagine, we already bought quite a lot of stuff (read:food) and for some reason I was carrying it all. So much so that when I went to pay for the Bochox, the owner noted that I had a good day. Hahaha, it was very fruitful that's for sure!

Had to wait for the bus to get back to the city, so instead of freezing our gluteals off in the cold we took shelter inside Yin Yee's restaurant, which had conveniently re-opened by then. Well, I won't bore you with details except to say we left the restaurant with 2 packs of fried rice(delish!!) and a rather huge pack of prawn crackers ala Malaysia. Lol, for some reason her dad reminds me of my own grandfather :)















The end result of our entire day
'shopping' at Hahndorf.
The 3 bags had my Rocky Road, Leng Hui's Rocky Road and the Bochox.
Notice the white packet? 'Chilli Chocolate' drink...Leng Hui is quite adventurous.

Notice the 2 fudge bars on the lower right.
Notice the 'Bum Burner' and mettwurst.
...I'd point with a laser pointer if I could but unfortunately I can't.

There you have it. Our trip to Hahndorf was really grool. We're so planning on rocking up again sometime soon!
Note: Visit Leng Hui's blog for her version of events....well actually it's more like her album of events :)

Epiphany

Well, it's as I expected - the depression was a one day event. As I said it has happened before albeit very rarely and I still dislike the feeling alot. Thankfully it's over for now. The annoying thing is that although I know what I can do to feel better when I succumb to it, I just can't do it - more like my mind won't let me do it.

Woke up the day following the depression to discover that I was feeling better. As I was getting out of the house to go for ward rounds I looked up to see the fiery clouds of dawn. It was beautiful, the kind that really pacifies and calms the soul. Then I saw what made me feel all better:

It was 2 streaks of clouds in a 'V' shape running almost parallel to each other before merging near the horizon. The moment I saw that I was stunned by its significance. 1 streak represented me, what I am, where I am at this moment in time. The other streak represented all the things I love - family, friends, food - which incidentally are mostly back home (some in UK and NZ).
The 2 streaks were separated at first, which would indicate my current situation where I'm apart from all that I love. But as I looked further, the streaks became closer and closer and finally merged. To me it meant that this journey of mine will be a path to something good as it will, sometime in the future, reinforce and reunite me with all the things that I care about.

The moment I saw that and had that realisation, all the bad feelings vanished to be replaced by a warm glow and I was not depressed anymore - ready to face the days' challenges with my heart and head held high.

Depression

1st March 2007 - the day that marks the first time I'm feeling down since arriving here in Adelaide. Call it whatever you want, being down, having the blues or simply depressed, I'm currently there. It's a mild case though, no suicidal tendencies or random acts of violence. In fact I function normally except that I don't feel like doing anything and can't focus. As to the burning question of exactly why I'm depressed I have absolutely no idea...if I did then I could actually do something about it. At this point I'm just moping about not doing much...heck I only finished half of my lunch, much to the surprise of Jebbrine earlier today.

The International Students Centre lady (who scared us off driving here) said that it is common for your emotions to go all roller-coaster on you as this is a whole new environment and one would need to adjust to everything. And it's not only one case but seems to go in cycles.

That being said, I never thought I'd be depressed here. Homesick sure but depression? Well, I've had it before but I really don't like this feeling. And it's so annoying when you want to do something about it but can't cuz you don't really know what's causing it.

Man I wish that I could have a nice piano and all my music scores. The alternative is exercising but I don't really feel like doing that. Or just playing around with my pets...
Why is everything I need back home?

Case

CASE (21/2/07)
22 year old male presents with bilateral pitting pedal edema for the last 4 days. There is no pain or discomfort. Medial malleolus, dorsalis pedis and posterior tibialis were all not palpable.
The swelling is limited to his ankle area, his toes are spared. The only pathology seen on inspection is generalised dryness of the area with signs of recent trauma from scratching, due to chronic eczema.
He has never had such problems before. He doesn't know of anyone in his family having heart problems, liver problems or kidney problems.
Heart rate is within normal limits, BP is normal, S1 and S2 heard with no additional heart sounds or murmurs.
The patient is on antihistamines and topical corticosteroids.
The patient is mainly allergic to dust and seafood.

What is your differential/provisional diagnosis?

(Hint:He is at an unlikely age to suffer from the common causes of such edema.)

PS : Adelaide people are hereby prohibited from providing answers or clues.

ANSWER :
Patient suffered from a combination of vasodilatation due to the excessive heat and increased vascular permeability, most likely from trauma to the skin from excessive scratching of the ankle area. It is possible that a low-grade infection was also present but this was not confirmed.
The doctor advised that the patient didn't need any blood tests but would be happy to do it if the patient wanted.
The patient did not want a blood test and was advised to let time take its course and return if pain develops or he swelling remains after a couple of weeks.

The swelling regressed and disappeared within 4 days of seeing the doctor.