M203 Diary

Thursday, May 31, 2007

I am bored too...

To reciprocate Sheena's three blogs, I present to you:


SHEENA IS A PARASITE

I hate to admit it, but I was freaked out watching that girl.


On another note, the people in Brisbane is still alive and now slaving away in our Medicine rotation. We need tips on surviving the horrors of memorising 2.5 years of IMU stuff in the remaining 50 days before our exams.

And on another irrelevant note, 50 days from now is the release of Harry Potter last book.

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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Sheena Malas Belajar III

The time of the year, when exams draw near,
And you know you should be studying.
Alas, you're blogging or You-tubing,
And suddenly D-Day is HERE.

Well, D-Day is not for a month yet - our Intermediates are in July, but already, I have that inclination to blog three times a day rather than read about liver disease.

And we all know how riveting liver disease is.
(Well, not for the patients, obviously, unless you want to consider having eyes and skin the colour of Schönbrunn yellow something exciting.)

Schönbrunn:








A palace so yellow, that it is listed in the colour scheme as Schönbrunn yellow, along with lemon yellow, mustard yellow, titanium yellow, chrome yellow, Naples yellow, Indian yellow (And here I thought the Chinese were the yellow ones *badumtss!*), and of course, jaundice yellow. (No, I'm kidding; there is no jaundice yellow.)
"The consequences of having hyperbilirubinaemia as such do not matter much in adults. We only pay so much attention to it because it turns people bright yellow. If it were colourless, it would be an obscure molecule."
- Dr. Fine.

Anyway, where was I? Yes, Schönbrunn, a palace that we, ie. Southampton, London, and the lone Aberdeen person, visited together-gether on New Year's Day in Vienna.


The Katterburg, located behind Schönbrunn palace. And me, obviously.

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Sheena Malas Belajar II

Most of us here in Southampton are planning to do our 6 or 8-week elective (depending on how 'keen' you are) back home in Malaysia. Most of us, referring to both the IMU students, as well as the Malaysian students who have been here since Year 1.

The thing is, if we wanted to travel anywhere outside Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and UK, it was compulsory for us to go to the Genitourinary Medicine clinic - Yes, the clinic you go to when you itch or ooze in your 'special place', to quote House - for HIV prophylaxis advice.
Why is Canada not on that exclusive list of rich 'DEVELOPED' Western countries, I wonder...

And that was how 40-odd medical students came to be crammed into one room, waiting for the doctor - not just any doctor, THE doctor - to come and give us advice. And when THE doctor did come out, he took one look at the lot of us, and said, "I'm sorry, I cannot advise all of you in one day. Some of you will have to leave & come back next week."

Right, never mind that some of had made bookings (I was not one of them) and that some did NOT want to have to come back next week at 5pm for this once-in-a-blue-moon consultation (I was definitely one of them). There was also the minor detail that our deadline for our elective application was the NEXT DAY.

As it is, I found the process ridiculous; Never mind that the elective form asked questions like, "list measures to reduce risk of robbery/attack" or "note any other significant hazards likely to be encountered at the destination, eg. venomous animals" (I am doing my elective in SARAWAK for goodness' sake, do they really expect me to list everything that could kill me there?); with regards to the HIV advice, could you not dispense advise to everyone as a group, rather than having to give advice INDIVIDUALLY?

At which point I approached the doctor and said, "Look, we have 13 Malaysians here, and all we basically want to do is go home. We've lived in our country for 20-odd years, I think we pretty much know how to deal with the risk of HIV, malaria and the like."

And THANKFULLY, the doctor then announced loudly, "Malaysia is low-risk for HIV, so if any of the students here are going to Malaysia, I am quite happy to sign your form, and you can leave."

Along with all the Malaysians getting their forms signed, unfortunately, that was also the cue for people going to Sri Lanka, India, ie. NOT Malaysia to come and get their form signed. Naturally, he flat-out refused to sign their forms, which was understandable, since those countries are nowhere near Malaysia, but I found it particularly hilarious when a batchmate from Brunei, could not get his elective form signed off, with this reason:

"Brunei has a high-risk of HIV. I need you to stay so I can give you advice along with the others."

So, the poor chap had to stay behind while the rest of us waltzed out. And as I exited the double doors, I heard another Malaysian behind me remark,

"What does he mean, Brunei has a high-risk of HIV? Brunei doesn't even have people!"


And I end this 2nd time-wasting post with this announcement:
The Southampton people will be returning to Malaysia on the 20th/21st of July, and will be there until the end of September. Make your dinner bookings now, to avoid disappointment later!

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Sheena Malas Belajar I

I have recently installed Google Desktop on my laptop, which comes with a nifty sidebar that displays random pictures in my collection.

And I realised that I do have a random collection indeed, if these are anything to go by:


































As clearly indicated by the title, I am bored, and in sore need of entertainment, and there are only so many times I can poke Ruben & Chong Han.

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