The Road to Edinburgh

There is officially only 7 days left till i leave my beloved homeground of Malaysia for UK.It's equally exciting as it is unnerving.Weird it is that a person can feel two totally opposite emotions at one time.What is even weirder is that i feel a sense of sadness to leave home.It's not like it's my first time but....sigh.The thought of a foreign land and to think that the Uni people actually tried to be funny by place all of us in separate flats.I want my housemate!!!On the brighter side,it's my chance to travel around without my parents chewing my head off complaining about expensive plane tickets.Don't think anything is going to change about the ground arrangement.Hehe.

For the time being,there are like a millions things to worry about but i just can't seem to be bothered.Probably the 8 months of waiting has lowered the excitement level by quite a lot.Many people advise me to do things that students do before leaving for overseas.
"Do the things that you will miss" they say.But what is it that i will really miss?I still haven't answered for myself on that matter.I can tell you what i won't be missing...Hokkien Mee.This will definitely irk my Penang friends, that's for sure.

Could it be spending time with my family?But they're not around most of the time anyways.No need to work meh?If grandma was still around that would be a whole different story.
Food in Pg?Been there done that,anymore will make me obese.
Hanging out with friends?Done most of it but we can never get enough.
Shoes?Clothes?Shopping?
Definitely not going to be able to figure it out tonight.All i can feel is this fear that i will leave something behind,something that i will really miss...but what is it?

Sydney Trip-Savouring it all

Day 10-The forbidden act.

I couldn’t help myself and it was a Direct Factory Outlet ,okay.I went shopping. That took up a whole day and a lot of my luggage space too.Hehe.

That morning itself i woke up to the alarm that we have to call and make a booking for Hurricane’s Grill. According to everyone, it’s another must go place and I couldn’t agree more.

Best ribs ever

Adelyn ,myself and Fred.Ready with our bibs.Cute kan?

This is what happens without adult supervision.

I did not cave into the peer pressure of using my hands despite Fred's constant taunting with his piercing stares.Although everyone else did,apparently it taste better.So they say.

Day 11- Bye Bye Sydney.

Was able to catch our last train out with Gary on his way to work. My heart actually sank, can't believe i was leaving holiday land back for Malaysia that day.

My last train ride

Krispy Kreme anyone?Decided to give it a try,my verdict- Overrated.I prefer J.Co.

Goodbye...land of the roos

Sydney Trip-Animal Review

Day 9

Time to get to know the Aussie animals.

The famous roo

An Albino one
Can anyone tell the difference from the ones on top?This is a wallaby.I can't tell them apart either but the kangaroo's fur is much softer.
Koala
Non barking Dingo

Wombat

Laughing Kookabura

Southern CassowaryA sleepy tasmanian devil

The Echidna

I even saw a chicken. But that doesn’t count as an Aussie animal does it?

After Featherdale Park.It was travel across the Harbour Bridge to North Sydney. What for?Hokkien Mee(Prawn Mee to people not from Penang).Well I’m went with two people who miss Malaysian food, there is not much of a choice.

As a comeback, I needed to have another go at Max Brenner.Hehe.

Heavenly strawberry drink

and of course dessert drizzled in the famous chocolate

Adelyn had her peanut butter drink.An acquired taste that one

The plan was to cook dinner by the way. We bought pork from North Sydney which went into a Nine West store and Max Brenner too. Healthy pork..it went for a workout. Nevertheless it went into the pot. What’s cooking?

Bak Kut Teh Australian style

Stayed over at Adelyn’s for catching up time.Yay..

Sydney Trip-What's that smell?

Back to the last leg of the Sydney post.

Day 8

Fishmarkets. Can you believe we had this for brunch?

Even if it did smell a little fishy in there,the food was definitely worth it. When we were done, we figured that we had already overstayed.So instead of Featherdale Park,we went for the casino.

Okay mummy, this is all Adelyn’s influence. The casino gives out 10Aud for new members. Yes,played for free and i won some money at it too. Beginners’ luck they say.

The metropolitan view

With Adelyn, there is always food involved in the agenda. I choose to go to Lindt

Opera cake

My volcano thingy with choc lava.

To die for Choc drink

My last attempt at night shots at Circular Quay

Attachments

Emo it is today.In the words of the wise Yoda.

My 5 days attachment is over as quickly as it begun.The just a short span of 5 days,I've somehow managed to bond with the juniors despite the constant mocking (with me being the subject) and mandrine language barrier.Have to admit,till this day I'm still considered a banana.(yellow outside but white inside,a way to call a chinese who speaks english as first language).But if you think that is bad,I wonder how one of our Indian friend,Arvinder feels.

Nevertheless, the extra curricular activities did help a lot in the binding,watching Olympics when we're suppose to be clerking patients and hourly or should i say few hour gossip sessions really pull us together.Really going to miss Soo Han,Ghi Waie and Choon Loo from our group B and definitely not forgetting the rest of the molly crew Sheah Lin,Chih Ying,Jimmy and Arvinder.Trust me when i say that you don't know a person's true personality until you've heard them talk/bitch about someone with dedication.

From the medical aspect,as little as we did,I've learnt that sometime we'll reach a point when there is nothing more we can do except to listen to our patient's whiles about their misfortune.Think about it,if a wife contracts HIV from her spouse,how is it that one is going to come to terms with the illness?The whirlwind of emotions starting from denial,anger to grief isn't going to ease much of the forthcoming burden.That one session really messed me up...so don't plan to do infectious disease as a specialty now.

All in all spending my week in kl was the best thing i could do for myself.Not only did i get back a glimpse of my medical student life,i had a farewell dinner with the some of the BMed students and one Lieo Jiun.So sweet of Yu Ling and Rahel to suggest the outing,Patrick and Shin Yee for choosing the wonderful thai place and the rest for being there in between their busy schedules.On top of it all,i was around during IMUCup week,got to watch some matches and practice volleyball with the current Sem 5.Nostalgia,i miss the M205 volleyball team.

'It Begins With You' Attachment

Today was the first day of my much awaited hospital attachment at Sungai Buloh Hospital after half a year of investing my time in non-medical related stuff.And working for marketing in a medical university doesn't count.

Just to probably state if for the umpteen time today, I've taken up an elective hospital attachment which is co-organised by Merck,Malaysian Society for HIV Medicine and Malaysian Aids Council.It's meant to create an awareness on the state of HIV and Aids in Malaysia hence the name It Begins With You.I was lucky enough to come by the opportunity when my junior, Sheah Lin offered the place to me at work a few months back.The best part about it, they actually give us an allowance for the five days attachment.How cool is that?I can't say that either the perks or the experience was the motivation to take up the attachment back then,it was more of an itch to be moving around.Nevertheless,it got me there today.Which means that i'm back again in vista for hopefully the last time but who knows?Currently taken in by my most generous junior,Alicia.Totally feel like a free loader,everything just seems to come by chance.

Something really hit me today,speaking to HIV patients is a total different ball game from speaking to patients with less stigmatized diseases.I guess i'm guilty of the stigmatization as well in a way.I initially had a fear of approaching the subject with them and that felt weird considering the fact that i've been taught over and over again for the last 2 and a half years to do the basic of conversing with patients.The doctor we were shadowing were of no help,he told me these were soft skills that one picks up on the way and can't be taught.It was half a day before we finally had the chance to clerk a patient of maybe i should call it a chat.Surprisingly these patients having gone through the worse in their lives comes out and share it openly with us.It gives me this sense of humility.We as medical students in our sparkly white coats,we crack our head to put things in a more acceptable way in our view of a perfect society when the best way was just to speak not like a medical student but as a friend.

Even though the people i spoke to today were all HIV positive,they weren't afraid to pour out their hopes and dreams,some even gave us the insight of what being drug addicts meant.It's amazing that knowing that what they have gone through is something not easily accepted by the society,they didn't fear stigmatization,didn't feel upset if they were,they had the courage to admit up to it and were deeply insighted cos they knew they were only misunderstood due to the lack of education on HIV.Silly me,having to fear that it would be awkward to raise the topic just because i thought is was something of a taboo or a sensitive issue.I genuinely felt they had the will to change things for themselves and do better for the future.All that awaits is for people to change their perception and give them a chance to be accepted back into the society.And no..not all HIV positive patients are iv drug users or homosexuals.(Some people just happen to land in that unlucky zone of getting infected by chance)If you did think that,please get educated.The net is ur best tool.If you can youtube or blog...i'm pretty sure you can search up HIV info.

Sydney Trip-Bondi Beach

Day 7

Sunday morning brought in another round of Yum Cha to start the day and we bided farewell to Kenny and Chia Pei.However it wasn’t all bad because i was goin to meet one of my bestest friend,Adelyn.

Then we were off to Bondi Beach for a change of scenery. One word says it all fan-freaking-tastic.I’ll let the pics do the talking for this entry.

Mini concert courtesy of World Youth Day
Artist at workThe ellipsoidal shape of the coast pushing in bigger waves.There is a club next to the beach too.And i found out there were a few other beaches along the same coast reachable by walking but i was already getting stares from Adelyn and Jeremy.So we only got this far. The rest of the time was chatting over Mars bars and dessert cakes at Gelato Bar.

That odd shaped thing beside the cake is the mars bars..freaking hugeAt the end of the day,we met up with Fred and Cheok Quen over Gary’s laksa dinner.