med school mumblings...

Monday, June 26, 2006

first day at medicine posting was nothing spectacular, only a one hour briefing and a short talk with our assigned tutor. we found out that we have to be on night duty twice on this rotation, and we are not to leave before midnight. am wondering how i'm supposed to get home without blowing a hole in my pocket (far away hospital + midnight cab surcharge = no lunch and snack money for one week). heh. well, it'll work out somehow.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

new year, new layout.

busking was great. we sang outside pepper lunch at shaw house, at the area between the underpass and the escalator. lots of people around, and many gave generously (several blue notes in our box!!). our version of the toto hit africa seemed to make the crowd happy, so we ended up singing it over and over again. heh. it's the best carolling/busking experience i've had so far. we sounded great and the audience was appreciative. whoot. would have enjoyed it much better if not for my terrible throat!

and deutschland is through to the quarter finals, thanks to two podolski goals. wished i could have watched the match! they meet argentina on friday, so that'll be really exciting. i can't wait.

so school starts again tomorrow and we'll go sixteen weeks without a break. see ya around, fellow White Coats.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

so this is my last week of hols and i should be out playing and watching movies right? well, thanks to a horrendous flu, i can't go for tonight's netherland's dance theater performance, i can't go to audiohouse to get my mp3 player, and i can't go for my anat group's bbq tomorrow. -sigh- what a way to spend my last week.

anyhoo, mednet has been updated, and i'm officially a third year now. our "personalized timetables" are up, and i'm up for ortho, radiology and e med this year, if i haven't read the timetable wrongly. hmm.

managed to watch germany's thrashing of ecuador last night, thanks to starhub's free preview. so now they're top their group, meaning they meet sweden in the group of sixteen, instead of england, which has tragically lost michael owen to a knee injury. interesting turn of events don't you think?

Saturday, June 10, 2006

if any of you out there happen to be along orchard road over the next two weeks (and i'm quite sure you will), look out for the something good busking festival, in aid of the bone marrow donation program. yours truly will be performing in one item. heh.

what an opening match! germany needed to win, and win they did, beating costa rica 4-2. to their credit, costa rica did their best and their star striker wanchope was really quite good, and managed to beat the german defence twice. but the german team did well, with philip lahm and torsten frings scoring one goal each and miroslav klose scoring twice, just not with his head. heh. klinsmann should be happy i guess, but i was a little disappointed with jens lehmann's performance. both times he let the ball in he was one on one with wanchope, and he just froze. like, man, do something! the camera caught ollie smirking when lehmann let that second goal in. one thing for sure, lehmann doesn't have the reflexes that ollie has, even though he looks less bulky. hmm. all the other players were good, schneider especially, since he was taking over captaining duties from ballack. as the commentator drily noted, ballack was not missed at all in the match. schneider did well to set up klose for the second goal, and i was really impressed with frings' brilliant goal, which curled over the heads of astonished and dismayed costa ricans. but the defence certainly could have done better, and they should, if they want to advance to the finals.

oh but what a match. three goals in the first fifteen minutes of the match. well, if die nationalmannschaft doesn't make it past the quarters, then that's the end of my soccer for the year (many thanks again to channel five!!). might just watch the finals, but it won't be as exciting without deutschland. heh.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

watching singapore idol has become painful. don't want to sound like a wet blanket or anything here, but really, choosing to do a song that's waaaay out your range while struggling to stay in tune? as if that isn't bad, wait till we hear the judges - "you've got a good voice" or "i like your style". like, hello? ken lim is the saving grace, and even then, he's responsible for putting these poor kids through to the piano shows. i really wonder what cowell would say if he was tuning in.

anyway, went to see over the hedge today. fish, you're right, it's really crappy, and in a nice, kiddy sort of way. the only in-joke was the mention of texas, regarding the death penalty, but i didn't get it until the movie was about to end. heh. am thinking of watching cars. i don't think anyone could go wrong with pixar.

since i'm staying put in good ol' singapura this summer, i've have decided to take over the kitchen. it was prawns on monday (my first true culinary triumph), and i take on beef and pickled veggie tomorrow. salmon, mushrooms and deserts are next on my list. yahoo. in between the opening and final match of the Weltmeisterschaft (thanks channel five for leaving the non-sports subscribers behind) i intend to go back to my Deutsch. four years to this month and i haven't progressed beyond the fifth lesson. and, i'll also try to give my room a makeover.

lots of stuff to do in two and a half weeks huh, not to mention shopping and squeezing the odd movie here and there. gotta enjoy it while it lasts.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

"empathy is not a three minute station."

i now kick myself for not answering that way yesterday. three minutes? showing empathy to a person i know isn't even suffering? i mean, you get at least seven minutes during speed dating, so how can it be possible to tell how nice and sincere and empathetic a person is in three?! now i understand dm's posts from last year. imho, communication osces should be scrapped. heh. i'm saying this here not only because i want to share my experiences, but also because the feedback page is "unable to process my request". so much for insisting we had to do it asap.

other than those two com skills stations, yesterday's osces was so-so. weird questions about masses that move with respiration, central lines, and aseptic techniques, but at least they were kind enough to screen a movie after our test while we were waiting for the other shift to end.

was more apprehensive about my medicine test, but it turned out ok. my tester had taken us for a tutorial before, and he's reasonable, so i felt quite relaxed throughout the test. had a moment of drama when i was presenting my short, cuz an elderly patient who was being wheeled to the x-ray dept suddenly became drowsy and started snoring in his wheelchair. despite shaking him and calling out, my tester wasn't able to wake him up, so he sent the patient back to bed. it was otherwise an uneventful test, and for those curious, i got an abdo long and a cvs short.

next day was surgery, and true to the spirit, my tester was stuck in the ot for the whole day and ended up taking me at five. could have been worse, because his original plan was to give me a parotid or scrotal short. luckily both were discharged, so i got both abdo for my long and short.

oh well, it's been a great six weeks i must say, but i'm glad for this three week break. will not have another for the next four months! so goodbye m2, and hello m3! =)