Jason’s Blog

There’s no denying, I GOT TAGGED!!! A few weeks ago, Wei Yin told me that she had Tagged me but I couldn’t think of anything to write about. Just a few days ago, I realised that Mai Chun Wai also Tagged me. I told Pui San that it would be quite difficult for me to write 6 WEIRD things about myself since "I’m just a normal regular guy" BUT she said she could easily list down 16 weirds things about me on the spot, so here goes:

THE RULE

‘Each one starts out by telling 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write (in their own blog) 6 weird things as well and state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave each of them a comment letting them know you tagged them and the cycle goes on.’

Weirdo 1: When I read, I’d read a few books at the same time without first finishing the first book. I can read a story book and can venture into another story book before I even finish reading it. Then sometimes I’d read the first book, sometimes the second until I finish both. Even after ignoring the first book for quite some time, I can remember where I had stopped reading without the use of a bookmark.

Weirdo 2: I can only drink coffee at Starbucks and not others. Not that I own a share in Starbucks or what. The ones at Coffee Bean and San Fransisco gave me a migraine when I first tried them and I almost gave up on these "high-class coffee" until I tried the one at Starbucks. This doesn’t apply for those Ah Pek coffee though. I can drink any Kopitiam coffee anytime, anywhere.

Weirdo 3: I like to sing karaoke but ONLY at karaoke centres like RedBox. If you ask me to sing in front of everyone, I’d get nervous breakdown and my voice would go damn high pitch. There was once when my VI friends put my name down to sing some patriotic song during Merdeka month on the stage, I freaked out and totally forgotten my lyrics!!! So I just stood there on the stage while attempting to recall the lyrics while the judges looked at me both with amusement and bewildment!!! Damn men-sia-sui-kan!!!

Weirdo 4: Once I like a particular show, I’d watch it many, many, many, many times. Remember Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone? I watched it like 9 times!!! The same applies for songs as well. Back in Sem 1, I’d always listen to "Don’t Cry Joni" every time I wrote my report. Then in Sem 2, I turned to "I Not Stupid", Sem 3 I was mad about Teresa Teng’s songs. My current and longest craze: Jay Chou. I started listening to his songs since the beginning of Sem 4 and until now, haven’t switched to other singers yet. Let’s see how long this craze will last… :p

Weirdo 5: I watch horror movies but ONLY if there’s someone beside me. What’s more, when I sense that something scary or ghostly is about to pop out from some dark places, my hands would automatically cover my eyes. Yet, I would part my fingers so that I could still see what’s happening though those slits and not miss the whole show entirely.

Weirdo 6: When I watch TV, I always read the subtitles. Even though the show is in English, I can’t help but read every sentence below. I tried to avoid reading once but I ended up getting too distracted by it that I didn’t watch the show instead. So, my eyes would flicker between the image and the subtitles every now and then. That’s why sometimes I’d get a slight migraine after watching TV for quite some time.

Okay, I’ve done my part and it’s time to choose another 6 who blogs to continue this game. Here goes:

1. Nithiya

2. Hoon Hing

3. Esther Ng

4. Ron Hsien

5. Ee Lynn

6. Eng Chin

Knock yourself out blogging something weird about yourself!!!

Saturday, 09/06/2007

Went over to Wan Cheng’s place to wait for Mun Yee as he would be driving us to Mines for the Buddhist Cultural & Arts Festival (BCAF) which is currently held at Mines International Exhibition Convention Centre (MIECC). Turns out that 2 of our friends wouldn’t be able to make it today; one had just flown off to Holland on a company trip while the other was busy with work. Mun Yee and his cousin, Chong came in 2 separate cars as he had expected a large company from our Setapak area. I sat in Chong’s car while Wan Cheng & Pam sat in the other car. Our first stop for today would be Haw Lun’s house.

We drove over to Sentul, picked him up and headed towards Mines. Stopped by Desa Petaling and had breakfast; porridge - which was quite delicious since it had a blend of salted eggs, peanuts and various condiments and hot coffee. Halfway through breakfast, Mun Yee got a call urging us to head there ASAP since there was still loads to do.

Reached Mines half an hour later and immediately headed off to work. We were supposed to build a 12m X 24m structure that resembled the Buddha’s foot with 84,000 lotus flowers that were donated from Thailand. The flowers were placed in 1.5L plastic bottles (filled with water to keep them alive and fresh), placed into individual compartments in boxes, and the boxes would form the structure of the foot.

Since the flowers arrived on Sunday, many of them had either withered or were blackened. Besides arranging the flowers into their correct position, we also removed the dead flowers and peeled off the outer layers of those that had turned black. The opening ceremony by the monks would commence at 11 a.m. and yet there were still so much to be done!!! Thanks goodness we had help from various other buddhist groups - SJBA, KCBA & Nalanda.

Somehow we managed to more and or less complete the structure in time for the opening ceremony. We stood around the perimeter of the giant structure and folded our palms together as a sign of respect while the monks recited some prayers. Unlike other ceremonies I had attended before, this one was particularly special for me since monks from 3 different traditions graced the opening ceremony simultaneously; the Teravadian, Mahayanese and Vajrayana traditions.

Aerial view of the almost completed giant structure:

The 5 circles on the left represents the 5 toes of Buddha’s foot. The middle flat area represents the base of the foot while the curve part on the right side shows the curved part of the foot’s heel. After the opening ceremony, there were still many flowers that weren’t perfect yet, so we continued peeling off and removing those dead flowers away. As always, we D2Y can’t resist to Shiok Sendiri in the course of working and took the opportunity to snap some really nice shots:

Took a break around 1 p.m. Lunch was sponsored by someone and although simple, was quite filling. Halfway eating, Francine asked me whether I would like to volunteer as an usherer since no one was willing to be one. We were given a yellow vest to wear, brought to the second floor and were stationed by the escalator. Our job was pretty simple; to direct visitors to the right side of the exhibition hall for a blessing ceremony by the Maha Sangha of 3 different traditions using ancient relics placed on their heads.

When there were no visitors around, we took the chance to experience how a Hak Sei Wooi or Tai Yee Long would act as in demanding payment or during negotiations with other triad members. Haha~~~ (,")

After our shift, I took a stroll around the vast hall. There were many interesting exhibits on display, among them replicas of the ancient Buddhist University (Nalanda), Mahabodhi Temple and Borobudur Temple.

At the Tzu Chi Merit Society booth, there was a long line of devotees queuing up to bathe the Little Buddha. There were guides that were showing and explaining many video clips and maps about the origin and propagation of Buddhism throughout the ages at another end of the booth.

At another end of the hall, there was an interactive booth of "One Day Life In The Monastery" where visitors were given the chance to experience the life of a monk. Since the queue was rather long, I didn’t feel like waiting for it and wondered to other booths instead. There were many booths that sold Buddhist books, hymms, postcards, fragrant incense, Chinese paintings and various souvenirs. Every now and then, there would be anouncements over the PA system asking people to donate blood while reassuring them that it was painless and that it would be over in no time. Sure enough, there was a long line of visitors queuing up to donate blood behind the booth that displayed many Chinese paintings.

The second floor sold mainly vegetarian food like Zhang, Nasi Lemak, Pau, mee, fried rice, coffee and tea. I was feeling rather hot after so much walking and bought an ice-cream cone from Izami Soft Ice-Cream stall. It was tasteless and was rapidly melting onto my hand. In my opinion, it should have been called Izami Melting Ice-Cream. I didn’t really enjoy that particular one. :<

Went back to help my fellow D2Y members to build more boxes to place more lotus flowers in them. Since we ran out of bottles, we just placed the flowers into the individual compartments, hoping that they would last a day without water for the exhibition that would end on Sunday. We worked fast to complete our task so that we would be able to catch the Shaolin performance which would commence at 4 p.m.

These Shaolin performers came all the way from the Southern Province of Fujian from China. While displaying various Kungfu stints, a Mandarin rendition of Wong Fei Hong accompanied them as background music, putting us all in the mood and we really enjoyed the performance. According to my friends, we were lucky to be able to witness this performance for free since it would normally be quite expensive to buy the tickets were it to be held at private functions.

Left Mines around 6 p.m. and was exhausted by the time I got home. Still, it was a day well spent being able to help out and contribute ito society in events such as this one.

Wednesday, 16/05/2007

"In a few minutes time, I’m pretty sure many of you will be jumping up for joy shouting ‘Merdeka, Merdeka‘ considering it’s the last day of the semester examinations" were the last words of Dr Kang before we were dismissed from MPH 1 - 3. Immediately, there was a change in the atmosphere: people  were shouting and talking and screaming and clapping all at at once, turning the initial graveyard-like exam hall into a Selayang fish market, minus the smell.

Even in my own close-knit group of 6, I can sense a tremendous relieve from all of them. Throughout the entire 10 days of exams, we didn’t really have the time (and heart) to talk, partly because they were all rushing home to prepare for the next day’s paper and some were really worried about the previous papers. Frankly, I too felt the same throughout the period. After the exam, I felt that I could breathe normally again and that a one-tonne burden that had been pinning down on me since the start of Study Break 3 weeks ago had been magically lifted off my chest.

We gathered outside Vista B while some of them when to change. Our first stop for today: Ee Ling’s Grandparents apartment in Sentul where we’d hang out till evening and we’d proceed to Nailis in Taman Dato’ Senu for Yam Cha later. We took the Old Airport Road to head towards Sentul area and decided to try the new SMART tunnel which was opened just 3 days ago. Halfway through it, there was a fork in the pathway which was quite sudden: 1 leads towards Jalan Tun Razak while the other leads towards Jalan Sultan Ismail. We missed the turning and took the one that lead to Berjaya Times Square instead. We took a few more wrong turnings until we finally turned onto the correct road that leads to Sentul area.

Entering Tamarinds was kinda troublesome. The guards were very thorough in checking evey particular of the drivers, which is reflective of the cost of purchasing a unit of such a high class apartment. The courtyard in The Tamarinds were well landscaped and gives you a feeling of peace and serenity where you can simply immerse yourselve in nature’s commune and breathe freely. We went up to Ee Ling’s grandparent’s unit, which was also tastefully renovated with soft skirting lights and numerous other decoratives. We were greeted with a HUGE barrel of KFC, Leng Chee Kang and soft drinks when we stepped into the apartment, ate and chatted till the food almost went up to our noses. Just when we thought that we could no longer take anymore goodies, Ee Ling’s grandpa brought out a big tub of fresh fruits and cakes (chocolate mousse and butter). We took the fruits but have to sadly decline the mouth-watering cakes. (sob) A short while later, grandpa brought more refills of soft drinks for us. (,")

After a while, we realised that as long as we remain sitting at the dining table grandpa would cook up something new to fill us further. Since we were feeling stuffed and it was almost time to head towards Nailis, we excused ourselves and went to explore the pool side located at the 4th floor. Chun Wai had the shock of his life when he was almost thrown into the swimming pools. Hey, you can’t and shouldn’t blame Alex and I, we were simply applying the principles of Homeopathy: making a person more shocked will aid in recovery and to overcome any fear, just like applying allergodes to treat allergy right? Would you disagree? This picture is really nice but somehow my eyes reflected bright red so much more compared to the others.

At Nailis, we chose the highest spot: at the tree top. It was actually a circular "room" which is assessible by a stairs. There was a long flat table with very little foot space, giving the appearance of a pseudo-Japanese restaurant where customers sit of their legs and bow politely, saying Aligathokozaimas or Sinimase. Since we were still very full from all the KFCs that we had, we ordered 6 drinks and a basket of french fries to munch and chat.

Halfway through mamak, Pui San called Esther to make arrangements for the next day’s karaoke session, so we took the opportunity to "promote" Nailis, and to kacau her. The phone wasn’t turned off yet when these pictures were being taken:

Our "dinner" that night:

Snapshots from the tree top and around Nailis:

Although I was exhausted by the time I got home (about 11 p.m.), I searched for some song lyrics by Jay Chou that we’d be singing the next day at Galaxy. Searched till about 3 a.m. (Thursday morning), then I decided to turn in for the night since I would need to be up early. Tried to sleep but my mind was very active: going over what we had just done the entire day and feeling excited anticipating the karaoke session in a few hour’s time at 10 a.m. later. I kept telling myself "If I falll asleep now, I’d have 5 hours sleep. If I fall asleep now, I’d have 4 hours sleep, If I fall…" so much so that I became more alert than tired. Out of boredom, I messaged my fren at 3.30 a.m. since I knew she would be sleeping by then. I watched some lousy football match on TV2 (the only channel that was airing something) till 4.30 a.m. then tried to hit the sack again. Tried as hard as I could though, I simply couldn’t fall asleep. I tossed and turned many, many times and went through the songs that I’d be singing in a few hour’s time again and again in my head, and feeling a surge of euphoria everytime. (,")

At 6.30 a.m., after failing to sleep after 3 1/2 hours, I decided to "wake up". It was too early and there wasn’t anything on, so I watched Next by Nicholas Cage. It was a good show, although the movie was kinda short and the ending a bit weird. Left about 9 a.m. to meet the gang at IMU (yes, IMU again!!! we must be crazy to return to uni right after our finals) to head to Puchong. Met Esther around 11 a.m. and went in to Room 22.

If back in Sem 3 we had Huo Yuen Jia by Jay Chou as our stress-reliever, this time around Isabella by Amy Search took to the stage. I really screamed my heart and soul out into that song, relinquishing all the built-up stress during the whole 4th semester. We did many stupid stuffs as well like singing really childish songs, Speedy Gonzales, danced while singing, modified songs for someone special **Hint Hint, I wonder who ler?** and sang till our voices almost croaked. This session was supposed to be a 3-hour karaoke cum Set Lunch, and we were supposed to stop singing at 2 p.m. But Galaxy management allows their customers to stretch their sessions a little bit longer, even after they had paid for their 3-hour session. In our case, the "little bit" turned out to be an extra 2 HOURS!!! So, we left for Esther place at 4 p.m. instead of the 2-3 p.m. as originally planned.

She had prepaid a home-grilled heater set for us to grill our food just like Road House Grill. Since it was a "hazardous" task to grill the foodstuffs, Alex and I put on our cooking (or in this case, grilling) caps and prepared Lunner (lunch + dinner). We did another Ho Chak session by introducing to the viewers the right techniques to fry an egg. It was a very impromptu session and there were many mistakes said and made during filming but it was really fun, and the egg turned out to be edible after all!!! Haha…

Went home about 8 p.m. and watched some shows till about 12 a.m. (Friday morning). That was when I suddenly realised that I haven’t slept for more than 48 hours and decided to turn for the night. This time, I really slept like a log till late morning. As I’ve always believed, quality beats quantity; and there’s no substitution for true close friends with whom you can share troubles and happiness with. (,")

Friday, 13/04/2007

This Malaysian Studies project was a joint effort between B105 and P106 for (as the name implies) our Malaysian Studies module. Unlike other modules whereby we have to kill some brain cells to memorise some unnecessary facts, this module emphasises teamwork, cooperation, communication skills and most importantly, allowing us BPharmers to have a little uni life from our mundane timetable of mugging, mugging and more mugging.

This backdrop was done by Hui Ling and gang. The designs were very apt and detailed, showing the cultures of the main races of Malaysia; Malays, Chinese, Indians and the Natives.

Yeu Lou and gang who were in charge of booth design did an amazing job creating 6 interactive booths for us Workshop Facilitators; Tong Yuen, Henna painting, Calligraphy, Ketupat, Roti Canai, Saree Wearing, plus other interactive stations like Wishing Tree, Bamboo Dance and Gasing.

The six of us was at The Atrium by 9.30 a.m. to help put up the info for each station and to do any last minute preparation before the event started at 11 a.m., so we took the chance to snap some photographs

I tried the events in several interactive booths, starting with Wishing Tree. I wrote my wishes on red paper, held the lime that was attached to the paper and flung it upwards towards the "tree" across The Atrium. Failed the first throw. Picked up the lime, threw again, and missed just by an inch. I watched as several wish-hopefuls threw and learnt their technique and succeeded the third time. Although it may sound kinda childish, but I felt a sense of happiness as I watched my paper get caught among the twigs and leaves and stayed entangled there. After that, I tried my hands (or in this case, my feet) in Bamboo dancing.

Tired and sweaty, I opted for something a little milder: Gasing throwing at the other end of The Atrium. I joined a few guys from my batch and together we created a racket with the musical instruments left behind by the Lion Dance troupe from SMK Taman Connaught. The best thing was that our lecturer, Rajesh Sharma took the drumsticks and astounded us with his skills in drumming!!! After that, I went over to the Henna station to see how Meng Xian, Ee Ling and Suk Kuan were holding up. Business was pretty good, judging by the continuous stream of customers waiting patiently for their hands to be painted. I got these done yesterday and the colours got a little bit darker compared to yesterday:

The event started at 11 a.m. with an opening dance by MPharmers. It’s actually very special since the theme for today was "Fusion, Confusion, Truly Malaysian", they fused 4 different dances (Tarian Lilin, Ribbon Dance, Indian Dance and Bamboo Dance) all in one. Prof Peter was invited to give a speech after that and Adeline (president) gave hers a minute later. Both Prof Peter and Mrs Phoong (our Malaysian Studies lecturer) were later invited up to the stage to receive a garland of flowers and to hit the gong to grace the opening ceremony. Immediately after hitting the gong, we were greeted by thunderous drumming, and accompanying this were 2 lions, one golden, one white. They moved with such agility and strength that we all stayed on to watch although it was way past 1.20 p.m. and our stomachs were growling since we had nothing since breakfast. This lasted a good 20 minutes and the 2 lions presented a plate of Sang Choy and some Lo Kam to Prof Peter at the end of their stint. This was followed by Shava-Shava dance (if I’m not mistaken, this dance was taken from the famous Indian movie Khabe Kushi Khabe Gum 3KG). There was also a duet performance by MPharmers. While they were performing, we got into our places to be ready for our choir right after the duet. This choir is special since they merged Rasa Sayang with the immortal Yuet Liang Dai Biau Wo De Xing and created a melody sweet enough to lift someone to Seventh Heaven (Hehe…I might have exaggerated a little but that was how I felt during the show). The guys started out Rasa Sayang soft initially (I guess out of nervousness, so it was a little scattered) and when we got to the rapping part, they got pretty disorganised and their voices weren’t very clear.  Kudos to the girls though as they sang in sync when it was their part, and their voices were clear and sweet. However, the guys continued with their Rasa Sayang much stronger and it was just awesome till the end of the last line!!!

http://www.youtube.com/v/h0A5F2QkCto

http://www.youtube.com/v/bpkLRoysFyE

http://www.youtube.com/v/2Az2w03TnVw

After choir, there was a Roti Canai competition for which I had signed up for earlier. Alex and Shin Yee, who were in-charge of the event, had managed to persuade dear Mak Cik from the Malay canteen to demo how to flip the "canai(s)" correctly. The aim of this competition is to see how well you can flip a canai and to make it as large as possible without breaking the dough. After 2 minutes, Alex would measure their diameters and the winners of each round (there were 3) would receive a pack of Mars Bars nuggets, complimetary of B105/P106 students ^_^ Some students were just plain cheaters; instead of flipping it around, they merely spreaded the dough on the table as flat as they could. I personally felt that Laura was the best canai maker around, though she only lost to Carol by a few cm. Congrats to Carol (Round 1), Kong (Round 2) and Yeu Lou (Round 3) for being the best IMU Roti Canai makers!!!

It was a great day, but it would have been better if we didn’t have to head for class halfway through the event and abandon our MPharm friends like that. Still, all of us had put in all our effort to make this day a success and for this I would like to say a big THANK YOU to ALL BPharmers and MPharmers for all your time, effort, money etc… Like I’ve said before - IF only we had more Malaysian Studies Days, wouldn’t it be GREAT?!?! ^_^

Wednesday, 28th March 2007

Since we already knew roughly how long the journey to Hospital Seremban would take us, we’d decided to gather at 7.30 a.m. instead. Learning from yesterday’s mistake, I had a hearty breakfast before leaving for attachment. We reached at around 8.30 a.m. to find that our parking space had been taken. We circled round and round the area and finally found a space in the Nursing School Department.

Having being quite familiar with the area, we headed straight towards OPD to meet Pn Kamisah for our Day 2 assignments. To our surprised, we were greeted instead by a Mr Chew, who informed us that Pn Kamisah is on leave and that he would be overseeing us forn the day. From my first impression, he looks like someone who’d stand no nonsense whatsoever. The first thing he did when we were herded into his office was to interrogate Kong and Po Leen (who were in OPD yesterday) on what they had learnt the day before. After introducing ourselves to him, he took us for a second visit around the OPD, showing us what we had seen the day before. Not wanting to hurt his feelings, we just kept quiet and listened and he explained how the drugs are ordered, stored and shipped around to be dispensed.

Then, he took us to visit the In-Patient Pharmacy (which we missed yesterday). Along the way, we passed by a hospital attendant pushing a metal frame container which was empty. Mr Chew told us that it was used to transport corpses from the wards. They would put the body into it, take the elevator to an underground level and the body would be transported to the hospital’s morgue through a tunnel that runs under the hospital’s grounds. He took us to the In-Ward Pharmacy, to DIS (Drug Information System) Department, to TDM and TPN (again). When we were done, we headed back to his office where Mr. Chew told us he would be giving us each an assessment to fulfill our requirement in the Log Book. He only had time to let Laura "dispense" medication to him before he told us that he had a lunch date and told us to come back at 2 p.m.

My friend who was attached to Hospital Seremban before told me to try the Indian food in IMU’s Clinical School instead of the hospital’s cafetaria, so we headed towards the building situated just opposite the hospital.

The moment we walked in the area, we could feel how a REAL uni should feel like; full of trees, a garden, well-landscaped and cooling. I mean, it was really peaceful just to walk in there.

They even have a nice cooling walkway in between the Indian and Malay cafetaria unlike what we have in Bukit Jalil!!!

After lunch, we headed back to Mr. Chew’s office to be assessed. He gave us 3 presricptions to choose from. Even before we had finished dispensing, he had already graded us; all with the same comment and score…Haha. To our surprise, once we had all been assessed, he allowed us to go home (at 3.15 p.m.!!!)

Before we left the hospital, we found a nice spot in the hospital grounds with a water fountain and wanted to take some pictures as remembrance. I asked the lady guard who was nearby for help. She was very apprehensive as she had never used a digital camera before. anyway, these 4 pictures were the result of her "expertise":

Picture 1: It was slightly blurred. We had told her to click on the button for 5 seconds and this second picture came out:

Picture 2: That was me explaining to her to hold the button for 5 seconds but she must have clicked on the button unknowingly. ^_^

Picture 3: Po Leen was explaining to the lady how to click on the button and again, this candid shot was taken.

Picture 4: Somehow, this picture turned out to be the best of all, although I was the most unprepared among the group.

Tuesday, 27th March 2007

Was feeling rather sleepy last night cause stayed up quite late to revise Complimentary Medicine class test the night before. Though my eyes were really droopy, I forced myself to read PSDs 1 - 4 just in case the pharmacist-in-charge would question us in Seremban later today. Read until around 11+ till I could no longer fight the fatigue and turned in for the night, praying that I wouldn’t humiliate myself or IMU the next morning. :>

Woke up at 6 a.m. so that I’d be able to meet the gang by 7 a.m. As expected, the road was slightly congested but unlike other days, it wasn’t so clogged up because we left 10 minutes earlier than usual. Reached the station, boarded the train and slept all the way till Sri Petaling. Walked to Vista C to find Kok Pun waiting by the gate. A little while later, Laura drove out with Kong. We waited for Po Leen and when she came, we left around 7.15 a.m.

The journey was uneventful; just that it ’s really, really, really far to travel to and fro everyday. Plus, the toll was a litle on the high side, costing us RM7.70 one journey! Our plan was to leave by 7.15 a.m., reach Seremban by 8 a.m. and go for breakfast before reporting for work. So, I didn’t have anything to eat since dinner last night at 8 p.m. We reached the hospital around 8.05 a.m. and hunted for a place to park. There simply are too many cars there converging in a tiny place like Seremban Hospital!!! We turned left, right, downhill, uphill, cornering every few metres but still couldn’t find a spot suitable to park Laura’s MyVi. Eventually, we found an empty space which was facing the front door of some office building. Ignoring it, we parked and proceeded to find our pharmacist-in-charge, Puan Basariah.

We took around 15 minutes hunting for a stupid parking space and by the time we entered the hospital’s main hallway, it was already 8.30a.m. We wanted to report to Puan Basariah and maybe to head to the cafetaria to grab a bite. Who knows, after reporting to her, she took us to the OPD straightaway and left us with the head there, Pn Kamilah. She proceeded to split us into 2 groups: Kong and Po Leen would be based in OPD today while me, Laura and Kok Pun based in the sattelite pharmacies. First she explained to us the various steps involved in ordering drugs and the various channels and government agencies that a pharmacist can request for a drug. She also explained about the Blue Book and how certain psychotropic drugs have to be kept locked up and the key is kept with the head of the department. She took us to the drug cabinets where they keep all the drugs and showed us how the movement of drugs have to be recorded. Interestingly, some drugs are only meant for certain patients and they’re given based on a first come first serve basis (e.g. only 50 patients can be given the drugs in a cabinet). I was shocked to find out that royalies are given a special cabinet and best of all, the logo was labelled "Royal" printed in Yellow paper!!! Talk about equity for Malaysians…

Kong and Po Leen stayed behind while we were herded by a PRP Kak Ida to the satellitle pharmacy on the 5th floor. From there we were transferred to another PRP, Kak Munirah (I think). She explained to us that the 5th floor satellite pharmacy was meant to serve discharged patients from the 5th fllor till 8th floor while the one at the 3rd floor for 4th floor and below. After explaining about the drugs and the functions at the 5th floor, she took us down to the 3rd floor and did the same there. After that, she "dropped" us there with another PRP. She asked her what was she supposed to do with us but Kak Munirah didn’t know either. Somehow we feel like being treated like cattles, transported from one dealer to another. We "sibuk-ed" there for a while till we could no longer learn anything there and proceeded to head back to the 5th floor instead (the air con there was much, much cooler). Along the way, we walked into a Second Class Ward to use the washroom. I saw a group of IMU Medical students crowding around a lady, listening attentively while the doctor explained the method of diagnosing the patient.

We went up to the 5th floor to find another PRP talking to the personnel there. She was helping her pack bags of medicine and solution to be dispensed to the patients in the maternity ward. Out of boredom, we asked her whether we can follow her to see how she dispenses medicine to the patients. Being a nice person she is, she agreed. Her name was Kee Kiat but we found out that her colleagues call her Kit Kat, which we did as well (:>).  Along the way, we met another of her colleague (Woei Tatt) who offered to help her dispense since she had about 20+ in her basket. We actually offered to help her dispense but she was worried that the patients there might complain, so we just followed her and her colleague around while they counselled the new moms on how to take the pills and apply the solutions given. What we observed was so very different from what we usually do in PSD. You don’t get to spend more than a minute for each patient, what more 5 minutes like we normally do during PSD.

After that we went back up to the 5th floor again. According to Kee Kiat, the lift are always fully packed at ALL times so we walked up a few flights of steps instead. There, she explained to us the various roles that are played by pharmacists in Seremban Hospital including TDM and CDR. Since we still had a good 1 1/2 hours still lunch at 1 p.m., we asked her whether it was possible for us to visit TDM and CDR departments. She made a few calls and took us down again. This time, we took the lift down. We entered from the 5th floor and the lift proceeded down slowly, stopping at each floor with the ever hot stuffy air circulating in the lift. When the lift reached the 3rd floor, there was a brief moment when the lights went out. Just as suddenly as it went black, light came up again and the lift proceeded UPSTAIRS by itself!!! We went up floor by floor again, stopping at 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and repeated the  process right down to the ground floor. When we finally reached safe ground, my head was already throbbing and I had a good mine to grab my medicated oil (but I didn’t want to face the prospect of taking the lift back to the 5th floor again).

Along the way to TPM, we asked her whether she was busy that day. She was kinda busy but was willing to sacrifice her time for us. At TPM, we met her first colleague (Woei Tatt) and a few other fellas (Lee and Intan). Intan was our MPharm senior from P103 batch (if I remember correctly). Woei Tatt took us around the area, pointing to CDR and TPN areas as well as where they normally store their drugs. It was quite brief since there wasn’t much to see, so we headed back to the office and chatted with Intan instead. She told us that we could actually visit the 3rd class wards at the 5th and 6th floors if we would like it. Somehow, they always compare us with our B104 seniors (who were more talkative and friendly, I think) who just came last week to do TDM and CDR. After a while, we left and decided to disturb Kong and Po Leen instead a OPD.

When we went to OPD, they were sitting behind a PRP, watching him dispense medicines. His lane was the Express Lane and had many young, old and special patients. He worked very fast, spending on average about 7-8 seconds per patient, but he was very professional and direct to the point. According to Puan Kamilah, he had just started at the OPD a month ago and was full of praises for him. We watched him for an hour, then we headed for lunch at the newe cafetaria nearby. The food was mediocre, yet expensive. Perhaps we’ll try at IMU’s Clinical School cafe tomorrow instead :>

After lunch, we went up to the 5th floor again and looked at the various drugs in store. Kee Kiat came in a while later and informed us that she would be clerking patients in the wards. We followed her into the ward on the 5th floor and took us to a small discussion area. This 5th floor was meant for getriatics (patients above the age of 65 years). According to her, a PRP has to clerk at least 15 new patients every month and follow up on their progress until they are finally discharged. While she was writing down patient’s details into a green form, we busied ourselves with other files and tried to decipher the doctors horrendous and illegible writing. We chatted with Kee Kiat and found out that a new PRP could earn up to RM2500 gross and in a few years time, the starting pay would be around RM2700 to RM2800!!! I walked around the ward (which was really humid and stuffy) to get some fresh air. The windows were left open and warm gushes of air hit my face every now and then. Walking along the aisle, I saw many patients who were invaild and most of them had a urinary catheter inserted into their bladder, draining out dark orange urine into a polystrene bag. A few of them had tubes stucked right into their throat from their nose and there was a particular sucking sound as the nurses proceeded to suck up the patient’s mucus. I can only imagine their agony as the tubes were pushed in then out again. As I walked further along, I saw an old man lifting his left leg up from the ground towards his bed, but just that there wasn’t any leg!!! It was already amputated and what should had been a calf with a foot and 5 toes were replaced with soft tissue mass crumpled around the stump area.

A while later, Laura and Kok Pun joined me and we went up to the 6th floor to another ward for the general public. Walking down the aisle, I nudged Laura and pointed to a student wearing IMU name tag. I asked her whether we can observe her while she diagnoses her patient. Luckily for us, she was really nice and agreed. Her patient was an old woman. She was anemic, really pale, her skin had lost its turgor and based on case notes, had some sort of respiratory infection. Before we started, this trainee doctor (Miss Teo) asked us whether we could speak Chinese since she a little of a banana. Luckily Laura was there and helped to translate certain stuffs that Miss Teo told us to the kind old lady. Miss Teo taught her how to diagnose some congestive heart problem by looking at the large vein on the right neck of the patient. Since the patient was so very thin, we could actually see her veins throbbing with a characteristic double throb, followed by a singular throb everytime. She listened to her heart and passed the stethoscope to Laura to listen to her murmur. True enough, a kinda weird sound could be heard!!! She then palpated and tapped her spleen and liver, teaching us how to differentiate the different sounds to roughly judge the positions of the organs. If a sharp sound was heard, this shows the edge of the organ but if a dull sound was obtained, a solid mass lay beneath and the tapping was continued until another sharp sound was reobtained. She measured the liver and spleen of the old lady and found out they were both larger than 15cm (vs the normal about 7cm). According to Miss Teo, the patient had some chronic blood disorder, which leads to her anaemia. But since her RBCs were actively destroyed by her spleen, this causes her splenomegaly. She even allowed me to press both her spleen and liver which were very hard. After that, she pressed the patient’s veins and found some abnormality. When pressure was applied to a vein, blood flowed away from that area; but when the pressure was removed, it flowed back into the vein. Miss Teo said this is called blanching, indicating some vascular disorder. The patient was also quite dehydrated since her skin didn’t have enough elasticity to retun to original after being pinched. We asked the old lady how much she drank and she drew an imaginary 500ml bottle size for us and said she drank 2 bottles of that for the past 3 days. We advised her to drink more water to saty rehydrated. Her fingernails also showed slight clubbing. All in all, we spent nearly 45 minutes with her and I could see that she was enjoying the attention she was receiving from a doctor and "3 fake doctors". Hehe…Poor thing. She must have felt so lonely there. But the good news is that she would be discharged tomorrow back to her 2 grandsons. We thanked her for her kind "hospitality" - literally and went down to OPD again. Just before we left, she told the trainee doctor in English "Aiyah, don’t worry la, you sure can pass your exams wan".

They were busy helping the pharmacists there packing, cutting and reading presriptions so we waited by a corner and chatted. We left around 4.40 p.m. and hurried to the car as we were afriad that the KL-Seremban would be congested. Luckily for us, we were well ahead of the mad rush back. Along the way, I chatted with Laura and Po Leen while Kong and Kok Pun both tired out, napped. Though tired, it was a really interesting and educational trip!!! :>

10/02/2007, Saturday

Another bright sunny hot day. I woke up kinda late this morning since I had quite a late night. Yesterday was my Dad’s birthday, so we went to a newly opened steamboat restaurant in Prima Setapak along Jalan Genting Klang for dinner. They had four different soup bases to choose from: the usual Ajinomoto soup, Tom Yam, Herbal and Porridge. We decided to be a little adventurous and ordered Herbal and Porridge. From the photographs in the menu, the Porridge base appeared green but when the waitress poured it into our steamboat poat, it was actually yellow in colour!! Somwehow it reminded me of Rusky’s Baby Cereal that me and my Sis used to eat last time ^_^

We chose the Seafood Set and a side order of Nam Yee Chicken. While waiting for the goodies to cook, I scanned the area around us. There were only four tables that were occupied at that time; two tables outside were occupied by a family and a couple of lovebirds and the other table inside was taken up by an Indian lady with 2 sons. She was kinda blur and didn’t know what to do. Her soup almost overboiled and she didn’t know what ingredients to be put in to cook first. Once in a while, she would call for assistance to put the food into the soup. Either she was damn Lan Si or it was her first steamboat meal. There were a few fellas walking around giving orders to the waiter and waitresses there and they fall roughly within the same aged group. This restaurant must be operated on a joint venture basis and those fellas should be the co-managers

We were halfway eating when one of the restaurant’s co-manager came over to ask us for any suggestions and complaints. He said since they venture was only opened last week, they wanted to obtain as much feedback as possible from their customers to better improve their food and service. We complimented their Porridge soup base, which was delicious and mentioned that their Nam Yee Chicken was slightly on the salty side. It was just a casual comment, I mean restaurants sometimes tend to be a little generous with their salt during marination, so we didn’t think that it would mean much to him. But he was suddenly so apologetic and went into the kitchen. A while later, he came out with a large plate of watermelon to wash off "the salti-ness" on the house, and apologised again to us. We really didn’t expect him to give us this extra service and turned down his kind offer. However, he proceeded with inserting toothpicks onto the watermelons for us and laid it onto the table for us before apologising AGAIN. Well, it was a rather surprising and pleasant experience that he went all out to make our dining a special and memorable one. The entire meal was quite cheap, only 41 bucks. Best of all, to lure in more customers, they had a special introductory discount of 20% until the 15th of this month. All in all, yesterday’s dinner was fun and unforgetable!

Went home after that and watched American Idol 6 on 8TV. Mom had baked a large cake and bought a bottle of sparkling grape juice, so we toasted to Dad’s health. While I was watching American Idol (and later Rush Hour 2) with Dad, Mom was busy folding decorations made from the extra Angpows that we had kept. It is customary for us to fold mobiles such as birds, fish, lanterns or even firecrakers to be hung all over the house on the even of New Year; I so can’t wait. Now, all we need to do is to clean the house a little bit more and await my Sis’ return. ^_^

18/01/2007 Thursday

It’s true! All the rumours that you might have heard about IMU students attempting to take their own lives turned out to be true!!! And I actually witnessed it right in front of my eyes!

The first time I heard about such stories was in Sem 1. Apparently some Medic students had jumped from the 3rd floor down onto the Atrium due to tremendous pressure from studies. I dunno how true the story is as there were quite a few variations.

Anyway, back to my story. My good old friend decided to "murder" himself just as he was about to leave the library. Why? Ask any of us Sem 4 students. With the amount of lessons, PBLs, portfolios, Dispensing sessions, practicals, CALs, Class Tests and what with running every now and then switching classes (SR 6 to MPH 5 to MPH 6 to LT 2 to…..) and rushing to the library in between lessons to grab books for research, it’s no surprise that one would have that kinda thought. Amazing how studying so much to save someone else’s life can make you wanna murder yourself. Ironic isn’t it?

Well…That’s True Blue BPHARM SYNDROME! Unless you’re in our shoes, there’s no way on earth you’ll understand what we’re going true everyday. But it’s really fun to do it together with friends, knowing that you’re not alone in feeling tired, worried, despair, sleepy etc.

Ok, enough nonsense for now. The truth is that we were in the library standing behind the library’s settee chatting, waiting for others to have dinner together. Then, my friend rushed towards us, feeling excited and all and TRIPPED on the settee. He landed on the "seating" portion and somehow, the "back support" portion came off from its frame, exposing multiple 2 inches long rusty nails!!! In trying to support himself while falling, his right arm grazed against most of the nails. And as Mrs Phoong from Malaysian Studies had taught us: For every action, there’s an effect. So how? He had various scratch marks along his right arm, the cuts were deep, he was bleeding and the wounds were raw. (If you ask me, if we weren’t there, we would have thought that he was abused by You-Know-Who for being a "bad" boy…Hehehe. *Hint Hint. PS *Hint Hint)

Anyway, my friend told the librarian about the sofa and can you imagine what they said? "It’s NOT our problem. There’s nothing we can do about it." Someone should really complain about this lackadaisical attitude. And here in IMU we’re taught to be Caring PCPs. What the???(Shake head X 3)

Sunday, 26/11/2006

Followed my parents to Pudu market since I wanted to be in Sungai Wang by 10.30 a.m. to meet the guys for a karaoke session later. I passed by a stall where an old lady was selling frogs. The old lady simply grabbed a frog from the cage, held it by its abdoment and whacked its head with a wooden stick twice without any feeling. WHACK! WHACK!!! And she placed the poor old guy onto a weighing scale to be skinned later. The poor frog was already half dead and I’m sure was suffering from concusion and could only wobble weakly in the weighing pan. The old lady then took another frog and repeated her actions. Whenever she whacked the frog, I couldn’t help but cringe at the sight of the frogs. Although I know that it’s part of a day’s job for a frog seller in a market, I can’t help but disliking her for being so cruel.

Reached Sungai Wang with more than half an hour to spare, so I went up to the 6th floor and looked around at the half opened shops. I went into the arcade, hoping to find the dancing game called Para Para Paradise 2 but to my disappointment, they didn’t have it. The next best they had was the Drum Game. The rest came later and we booked into Room 48 for our karaoke session. We booked for 3 hours and our session should last from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For the first time in karaoke, I sang so many Chinese songs. My favourite was Long Jee Sum Sin (the theme song for the show SEPET) by Sam Hui. I had hunted high and low for the lyrics in the net but couldn’t find it, so out of desperation, I listened to the songs a few times yesterday and decided to write it out myself…Hehe…Well, it was really worth all the effort. Halfway through the session, I had lost my voice after singing Numb by Linkin’ Park…Haha, never shouted so much before either.

The karaoke session was supposed to end at 2 p.m., so by 1.50 p.m., we were already choosing one last song to be sung by everybody. After that song, we were surprised that we could still choose some other songs, so we chose another ‘last song‘ again. And even after that song, we could still choose other songs, so we thought that maybe RedBox had allowed us to sing until 2.10 p.m. After 2.10 p.m., again we were surprised that the remote control could still be operated, so we just continue singing happily. Since we had already paid them at 1 something, RedBox wouldn’t ask us to pay some more. Furthermore, no one came to clear our table or shoo us away, so we stayed put and sang even more. Every now and then, some other patrons would peer into our room and that really freaked us out. We were thinking "Are they waiting for us to leave so that they can enter?" "Will RedBox charge us again when we leave the room?" Luckily they went away and we continued singing. Then at about 2.45 p.m. Alex chose a song entitled "Geng Ko Gam Kok" which was a really, really, really looooonggggg song… It lasted about 10 minutes and when it finally ended, we couldn’t operate the remote control anymore, so it was time for us to leave. Hmmm, considering we paid a-3-hour-session for 4 hours, it was really worth it!!! Somebody must have done some very good deeds indeed to be repaid by an hour extra of singing…Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

After that, we walked over to Times Square to hunt for PC games since it’s cheaper there and they had a Buy 4 Free 2 CD offer. I finally found SimCity 4000 in one of the shops there. I’ve been to about 3 different PC shops lately and all of them don’t seem to stock up this particular game. Since Ee Ling bought 4 CDs, I got mine for free (which we then split evenly). Then we went over to the Arcade. I raced with Chun Wai and Alex in a racing game called Battle Gear 4. It really sucks!!! The steering wheel was so difficult to control and I kept crashing into both of their cars. Somehow Alex always seem to start faster than both of us even though we crashed at the same time. Later I found out that he was using manual, which enabled him to start the car faster than automatic transmission. I swear I’m NOT playing this game anymore!!! Yuck!!! Then I played Para Para Paradise 2. The sensors in Times Square is not as sensitive as the one in 1 Utama, causing me to miss so many "dance steps". But at least I got to play what I had wanted all along, so what the heck.

After that, we walked back to Sungai Wang to have a drink. We went to this shop that sells Bubble Tea and I ordered Mango Bubble Tea. While drinking, we discussed our plans to go to Genting and Ipoh for Christmas. We were given our photographs that we took at 1 Utama the last time and had a field time trying to divide the loot among us. By luck, I got to keep 2 large photographs which had nice shoot of us. Haha…

It had really been a wonderful day today. Now it’s time to play SimCity 4000. Muahahaha

Friday, 13/10/2006

Followed my dad to his office this morning since I wanted to take PUTRA LRT to Kelana Jaya to meet my gang. We were to go to 1 U today for karaoke. Reached the station at 9.05 a.m. well ahead of our determined time 9.30a.m. and met Meng Xian plus Suk Kuan coming out from the same train. While they slot out to wait for the others, I had some business to do and headed off to the washroom (Btw, do u know they started CHARGING people 20 CENTS!!! I thought they only charge passengers in KLCC and Masjid Jamek? Damn!!!)

There were 3 cubicles and 2 of them were already occupied. The only one left had a faulty door. The door was too big to fit through the door frame and could only close partly. I couldn’t slot the closure into the gap. Anyway, I did what people normally do in cubicles. Suddenly some guy pushed open the door, assuming that no one was in!!! Luckily my reflex was quite fast; I got up immediately and pushed the door from my side to prevent him from seeing "un-seeable stuffs". Phew!!! Talk about strangers intruding into ur life. Is there no moment of peace for someone to answer nature’s call???

We crossed the bridge to wait for Esther on the other side of the station. A suspicious looking guy followed us across the bridge but we just ignored him. But, we caught him staring at Suk Kuan’s bag every now and then. Eventually he left on a motorcycle with someone. Esther came 10 minutes later and drove us to 1 U.

Reached at 10a.m. Tou San wasn’t there yet so we headed up to the arcade to spend the time. While playing we saw the SAME GUY at the LRT following us around. Whenever we play a game, he would be lingering around, scanning us up and down. I caught him looking at Suk Kuan’s handbag again and he was a real nuisance. Luckily there was a security guard patrolling around, so I went to notify him about THAT FELLA. He said that he will make him disappear… True enough, the man left the arcade, only to resurface a few minutes later. Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to shrug him off, we took extra precautions to avoid any untoward incidents.

Tou San came about 10.25a.m. We played a while longer and headed off to NeWay for Karaoke!!! Ee Ling had booked a room earlier, so we headed to Room 1. Initially, everyone was pretty shy and didn’t want to sing. Besides, the remote control was so "not user friendly", so we had difficulty choosing our songs. Eventually, after much vocal warming up, everyone became very semangat and screamed our head off!!!

We had already prepared lyrics with Pin Yin for Mandarin songs; among them David Tao, Jay Chou and Teresa Teng. When we were singing Jay Chou’s Huo Yuan Chia (Fearless), we were so pumped with adrenaline that while singing the chorus Huo Huo Huo Huo Huo Huo Huo Huo, we were jumping up and down, some of us on couches while screaming the words out loud!!! We were simply the loudest group among the many rooms there…Haha…It was simply awesome singing songs like Yuet Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xing, Tian Mi Mi and Xing Fei De Yi plus other songs like Coast to Coast, Uptown Girl and many others. My favourite for today was Tragedy and Too Much Heaven…Walao…I really wasn’t myself at that time. That was FUN FUN FUN!!!

We left NeWay at 2p.m. Since we still had time, we went to the arcade again. Played Time Crisis 3 with Tou San…I really suck in shooting man…I dunno how to coordinate between shooting, reloading, aiming, choosing weapons and dodging enemy bullets. Funny thing is that Tou San "died" faster than me (I wonder how? I wonder why? Hahahaha…)

I wanted to play Para Paradise 2 BUT a guy was already dancing on the platform. I’ll give it to him; he WAS SUPERB!!! He could dance without mistake for a combo of 300++!!! I thought he would leave after the first round but he went on for another round; this time he chose the "Invisible Mode". Eventually he left and I went on to dance. For the first round, I chose to dance 3 separate rounds. I thought that a round would be enough but after dancing, I was so fired up and went on to another round. This time, I chose the Non Stop version and had a field time swinging my arms around in tune with the music…After that, I was sweating and so filled with indescribable happiness….Wah Wah Wah….Hahahaha… Too bad we didn’t have enough time, or I’d had proceed with a third round…Haha…

We left in Tou San’s car for IMU. Reached around 3.55p.m. I rushed to change my shirt and put on my tie before Mario and Nadeem comes in for Pharmaceutical Class Test Feedback. Only about 20 ppl came today as most of B105 had already balik kampung.

I never had so much fun in a day since Cross Dressing during Orientation. Overall, it was a great day well spent with great friends in a great karaoke set up. The only thing that can be improved further is the food served in NeWay. It was erm how should I say, below par? One of the dishes served there had already gone bad and was smelling kinda foul and weird. Perhaps we chose the wrong food (Japanese Mee) over food like BBQ Chicken. Well, we’ll make sure we chose a better food the next time we go to NeWay again and I hope very soon!!!

By the way, did anyone realise that today’s Friday the 13th?????