Birthday Tributes

Since there are a few people I'd like to extend Birthday wishes,i thought might as well have a post.

30 June - Jane June and Hwee Ming

This is for you Jane June,Happy Birthday!!!Can't type mandrine but if i could, it would say Shen Ri Kuai Le.Okay even my pinyin sucks.

Despite being so far away in Swansea...we won't forget you.Hope to see you soon at the end of the month.Hugs...Stay strong..Persevere k.

P.S: Sorry your real copy won't reach in time but rest assure it will come

As for Ming,what can I say,reply your messages man,there goes your free lunch.Maybe better luck in Malacca next month.

7th July- Chow Chow all the way in New Zealand

8th July-My bestest friend..Michelle dearie
I wouldn't call our Sunday outing with Angelina Jolie in Wanted as a birthday celebration but i hope you like the pressie.Good Luck for USMLE.Gambate!!!And have fun on ur real b'day.

11th July-Jen Ooi my childhood friend
By far my longest friendship ever,23 years and we're still going strong.Love you till bits. Enjoy ur 7-11 birthday!

Spread The Joy

I'm happy happy happy today.Why?

Daddy came to pick me up for lunch.

Ate my favourite Bo Lo Pau

Dad gave me something black,flat and shiny in time for Aussie trip.Can't tell, in fear of personal safety.Hehe.But happiness is the result.

Plus tomorrow is friday.Working half day again.

Countdown : 10days till Sydney

How effective is our Health System?

Jpa made a request for me to undergo a medical checkup to ensure i'm not rigged with any bugs or fatal illnesses before flying off to Scotland.And yes once again at my own expense.So i had 2 options; either a private hospital at a minimum cost of RM300 or government hospital at half the amount.Guess which one i chose?

I made a bold choice by choosing government hospital.Bold, i say?Why?It takes 1 month for the medical report to be ready compared to 3days in a private hospital.Sweat!!!Is it that hard to fill in some forms?Pleaseeee.....let my briefing be in August or it'll never be ready in time.

The whole process of getting the checkup done was more like a journey of endurance and patience rather then anything else.I started off towards the hospital at 9am.By the time Ben and I located a building called Wisma Kayu for the medical checkup,it was already 10am.In that short time,we already navigated a huge part of the hospital ground and me being a smart ass wore heels.Ouch!!!

Procedure :

-Queue up for some one to check my offer letter and medical checkup form
-Given a bill,to be paid at the Maternity Building (walk some more)
-Come back,queue again to get waiting number
-Wait,wait,wait,wait,wait.....till number was called...(time 12.45/50)
-Receive instructions,blood was drawn.
-Picked up 2 bottles for urine sample.
-Manage to deposit one at the Wisma Kayu,need to go to another building to deposit the other.But...government office,lunch time close.(which means...throw away sample,collect another at 2pm...major sweat case)
-Walk all the way to X-ray department,repeat ;queue,number,register and wait again.
-Decided to take short cut and run down to get Mantoux Test for tuberculosis.Thank you dear Medical Assistant and nurses who where willing to give us the jab even after the appropriate hours.That was the best thing that happened the whole day.(For your info,Mantoux Test in government hospital is only available on Tuesdays till before 1pm)


Mantoux Jab..
-Wait,wait,wait for X-ray.I'm pretty sure they are not good with numbers because Ben's number was 7081 but he went in much earlier then my 7080.Siau lar these people.
-Went down to do second urine sample...argh..
-Walk back to Wisma Kayu because we were told to.But the Registrar say actually we didn't have to.Would probably smack someone if not for the fact that i wanted to change my next appointment date.

Done at 3.30pm.Took 5 freaking hours...didn't go back to work on that day needless to say.
That's the price for being money savvy or a scrooge some would say.If you were wondering if that is all for a medical check up?The answer is no...the other half will be done when i go back a month later.Talk about efficiency.I love my country for all it's natural gifts,trust me beaches,parks,hills,mountains all international standards but when it comes to the healthcare system that i'm going to serve in the future,I'm not that optimistic.Hopes are up that things will change in the future.Hopefully..

First meal of the day at 4pm.(Well maybe after Dutch Lady Choc Milk)

BTN Camp '08

*Disclaimer:Very long post

Location : Panorama Taining Camp,Langkawi

(In the middle of the island,neither near a mountain or the beach)

Duration : 5 Days 4 Nights

Participants: 219 JPA Scholars (INTEC-Russia,KTT-Indonesia,IMU-Canada,UK)

Previous BTN camps for me: 1

Enthusiasm for this camp: Very Low

Took a flight from Lcct in to Langkawi together with Li Ying,Bela and Hafiz, the pilot probably thought we were rushing because he got us there way before the scheduled 1 hour flight ,we had 20 minutes to spare to be correct.
I see Islands..if only i were really on a holiday
The Coast Of LangkawiBela called a Mr Affendi and we were directed to a Panaroma Hotel.When we got to a taxi service counter, they seem to ask.." Pergi ke kursus ya?" How come everyone seems to know?We didn't say camp, we said hotel.Nevertheless, after enjoying our last few tourist/holiday moments we headed for camp.

Hafiz:Gimme a B
Chee Mei:Gimme a T
Bela:Gimme an N...BTN

We were as happy as trainee's can be because we found out our accommodation was unlike the previous camp which has multiple double decker beds in 3 adjoining dorms and a common bathroom,we were upgraded to hotel rooms.Okay maybe a very dilapidated hotel room but it did come with air-conditioning.What more we could ask for ?Li Ying and I had very low expectations for the camp.We were going crazy over the thought of not having to use common bathrooms, i doubt we would be similarly excited if it was a holiday trip.Dilapidated!!
Scary Pic...Different reflection


An hour or 2 to kill before the rest of the trainees arrive, oh did i mention the rest of the other 215 trainees were coming in by ferry after their long 7 hour bus ride from KL?What fun.
While waiting....

Camp officially starts..everyone please ignore coloured clothing
Dresscode : White Shirt, Black Slacks
I nearly died going sitting through 4 ceramahs(Talks) or they would rather call it Pembentangan Kertas Kerja (Paper Presentation).Before each one,we would need to sing a song called Menara Bangsa.I dunno who the lyricist or composer was,but i'm pretty sure everyone wants to give him/her a whack for creating such a weirdly worded and irregularly tuned song.

Then we had small group discussions called LDK(latihan dalam kumpulan).Contents are a little too sensitive to be mentioned here.In short,it's about our country and it's constitutions as well as the citizens.So if you wanna know more,use msn k.The only time i had fun was during the 2km run.Needless to say, even that was an evaluation.And they couldn't pick and easier route,i swear there is at least 4 or 5 uphill runs with the last being the steepest then it's back to the starting point the same way.That was kinda off the only physical activity we got besides a few movement test to gage our physiological age.I turn out to be a 44year old aunty.Darn...Kembara(Trekking) was literally a walk in the park, the most challenging part was going under a small fallen tree then continuing the journey on tar road :( No mud, no river-waste of my time looking for cheap shoe to throw away)

This is Li Ying's hobby after Ryiadah(leisure probably,i dunno what it means) time

All in all the camp was not as bad as we dreaded,they never force us to wake up for moral class at 5.50am anymore.Can sleep till 7am then morning parade.Meals are still 6 times a day as usual.I now understand why Robert Kwok (Malaysia's richest man/Sugar King) is so rich,malaysians use a lot a lot of sugar in their drinks.Moral classes aren't moral classes,it's video time which means sleeping time for me.And exams are just a way to sum things up.

The graduates from BTN camp after exam...Holiday Spirit

Freedom to fly like the eagle
I Love this shot...Looks more like some Pendekar Silat rather then an eagle

High FiveFerry and plane tickets very expensive
How can any Langkawi visit be complete without this big bird?
View from the ferry
My ride home
I'm kinda missing camp now.Not the course but the whole interaction.I don't get to wake up to watching Li Ying and Wei Wei studying.Always rushing for morning assembly,food,classes,talks and afternoons outdoors.I guess after 5 days, it has become routine.Living with people is really the best way to get to know them,i miss the friends i made too.It is without a doubt I've learnt patience and perseverance maybe not for the same reasons the facilitators in camp would like but i do know that i have to take my place in society some time.What can i say,when you can't beat them..just keep your mouth shut.

P.S : Anyone bound for BTN camp,don't waste your time reading the brown,blue,orange and yellow book.It has no relevance what-so-ever to the exam questions.Just bring your common sense.

Yat Lou Sun Fong !!!

Despite the blurness of the whole thing,plus the fact that i manage to travel alone without the safety of my handphone, i do still remember taking many many trains to send the Pharmacy scholars which i've known since INTEC.Needless to say it's pretty sad that they're leaving.Karen nearly made me cry.But i held it back,no more cry baby scenes here.Hey look on the bright side,i'll be in the same country in 3 months.Karen...Hui Yen..cook tom yam and wait for me k.

I met Jason on the way back, he had somehow got the timing wrong and just missed them entering the gate.Both of us were being such a scrooge that we decided to transit on the KLIA transit.Confusing? Let me put it this way. The trip from KLIA to Bandar Tasik Selatan direct is RM26.50.But If we made a stop at Putrajaya before heading back,total cost is less then half.Since we had the time,why not?Or so we thought.We casually forgot that lrt closes before 12.Darn,we had to take the taxi.And Jason despite living most of his life in Australia, he was adamant to bargain with the taxi drivers.I admit it was a good try but i didn't see the whole point of arguing with a whole bunnch of them and in the end it'll just end up with them cheating us on double price anyway.Did i mention that i manage to extract interesting details for my Sydney trip from Jason the whole journey back?Hehe.If i were to research on the place might as well the Australian who lived there.

Got a message from both Karen and Hui Yen telling me their plane had some problems and had to head back to KLIA not long after i reached back.They were still stranded when i went to bed.Hopefully they had a bigger and better replacement plane and manage to run in time for the connecting flight.

Countdown

BTN camp : 5days

Sydney : 25days

Do you love your country?

Guess what JPA decided to throw onto my lap today? I knew it was going to come eventually but i really don't like getting surprises just one week before the actual thing.I've been officially informed to attend a camp Kenegaraan from 16th till 20th in Langkawi.Sounds pretty cool rite?I doubt i'll be having a holiday there.Well at least i'm not gonna have to repeat the camp at the same place like my poor Pharmacy compatriots.Yes people,I've been for the camp once.Why do i have to go again?Go figure,apparently camp validity expires according to the new JPA policy.Does that make sense?On top of that,i have to pay for my own traveling expenses there.Talk about saving tax payers money.And people are saying the Government is not helping them save money.

Now it's time to for the big dilemma, blow a lot of money on making last minute flight arrangements or endure a 7/8 hour bus ride to Kuala Perlis?Be a scrooge or a splurge?Saving or comfort?Since i have plans for next month, my conscience has told me to save and take the bus.Hey it's not like i haven't done any marathon bus rides before.Pg-Johor 10hour rides used to be a norm when i was high on traveling.Thanks Michelle for reminding me about that.It all seems more digestively acceptable now.

The Click Five Concert Photos

( Left)Lead Guitarist -Joe ...........(Right) Lead Singer/Guitarist-Kyle Patrick

During the debut of the new single by Ethan...

On the keyboards...BenLead Singer/Guitarist-Kyle Patrick

There's Drummer Joey doing his thingEthan the bassistSaying bye bye.