... (Lots of 'bleh')

Weeks of frustration. Highlight was on Friday morning. Great, isn't it?
Let's see how it goes on the final week.

What are the odds of getting the chance to do it if you're not even given one with your own batch's project? Bleh.
Professionalism? Apparently the other group was very tired as longer time to 'rest up' was requested. 65 compared to 75 (with the same persons running them compared to more than 2 people per group) apparently was more taxing. Know I know Math. Another bleh.
Kudos to the smaller group; I apologize for not being there to join in the fun.

Two more years? How come that was the first time I heard of that?
Thing like that, there's only one thing I request: Don't say it in front of the only one person that I don't want to listen from >.< This has now become a stressor. Double great.

And perhaps the third bleh.

Cameron: Part 2

I just got the photos of our family trip to Cameron Highland (in which, that's my SECOND time going there THIS year). Most of the pictures were taken by my brothers. And since I posted the first set of Cameron with lots of flower micro shot, I present to you the drool-worthy reasons to visit Cameron Highland!


I took this photo because of the bee inside the flower. Can you see it?


This wasn't taken by me. But I loved this shot. It would probably have been nicer if I enhance the green in photoshop. But I'm tired of using photoshop for one whole day already =/


Hello, Mr. err... Fried Crab. Found in the famous Night Market in Brinchang. Trust me, this guy wasn't alive anymore.


Brownies @ Cameron Bharat Tea. Two main tea plantations that you HAVE to go: Boh and Bharat. Boh Tea plantations are situated at 3 places; choose one but I loved the one in Gunung Brinchang- the scenery was exquisite. Bharat's situated alongside the road from Ringlet to Tanah Rata. Okay! I'll stop promoting that place now =/



Steawberries and more strawberries!!


The rest of Cameron Part 2: Family Trip is here

Post-scriptum:
We have started new posting. I'm doing Specialty posting at the moment. It include 4 disciplines- Anaesthesiology, Ophthalmology (I'm doing both at the same time for a month now); ENT and Radiology (for the rest one month left). I've done Ophthalmology before. Anaesthesiology is something new and I was really looking forward to it.

What surprised me though is, I found that I like being in the OT (operating theatre). It doesn't matter if I'm on the surgical side or the anaesthetist side, I just like OT's atmosphere. I'm interested in anaes at the moment, probably because I'm intrigued and confused about the drugs. But intubation excites me; and I wanna get the chance to mask and bag and intubate too. Okay. I'll stop before I bore everyone to death.

I got 2 wedding invitations on December 12- one in Semenyih and one in Klang; one of childhood friend, and one of high school friend. And 12th is also my best friend's (of 18 years) birthday (and I still have no present >.< ). PLUS, I will probably be just arriving from Sungai Petani Kedah, that morning, depending on if we're driving, taking the flight or bus (in which, I have to reconfirm with the partner in crime).
I hate dilemma.

Favourite Shots of the Moment

Since this has been neglected, I present to you some of my favourite shots at the moment. These were taken in Melaka while we had our Psychiatry posting and had our Mental Health Community Project.


I liked the background, how it turned that way after a colleague suggested to change the setting, so i snapped this (above) and this (below):


and I'm still not too happy with it =( I wanted to experiment more but I planned to take pictures of the rest of the group there too so I delayed it (the experiment). Unfortunately, it rained soon after. That was the only free early evening that we had in that one week, sadly.


Don't you just love the coulourful pens? It's my laptop's wallpaper at the moment =P


Just because.

This week is Week 8 of Psychiatry. I liked this posting, had lots of interesting encounters and it did change some of my misconceptions (even though I did Psychiatry in Perth already). And 2009 is almost at the end as well. Interestingly, I met lots of lovely new people, traveled TWICE to Cameron Highland, had a blast in food-hunting (I fear that it will not stop even though Psychiatry is finishing soon) and attended International Humanitarian Conference at PWTC last weekend.
My cousin gave birth 2 days ago, I have a couple of wedding invitation before this year ends AND there's still Le Tour de Kedah that I want to join.

And something to look forward to this weekend! Something similar to this:

I haven't met the girls for a while now, I hope it would be fun meeting them again ^^

P/s- I've learned one definition of 'sleeping early' yesterday- yes, indeed, 1 a.m. is early.
Please note the sarcastic remarks in there

I promised I'd post something about food shukudai here, right? >.< will do that this weekend, I hope.

Popia or Cakoi?

'Ayah' said this is 'popia'
Twice

People, meet 'popia'

No. That was a joke. This is called cakoi. It's really nice for evening tea.
With hot tea, of course.

Photos: Purple Flowers

This came on August 28th, at around 3 p.m. when I was about to go out.
I've been outsmarted this time... but it was really a pleasant surprise!







Tidbits for the day:

Opthalmoscopy- looking into one's soul~

This is not a quote from anyone, just some lame joke I made with Amal. Doctors use opthalmoscope to look at the retina and people say eyes are windows to people's souls. Put two and two together and you get the lame joke I'm trying to give.

(p/s- can I look into certain someone's then? xD *flees*)

Tidbits for the Day

"Dia" = right through
"Gnosis" = knowledge

"Dia+Gnosis" = Diagnosis

^^

Lecture by the Dean today sort of reminded me the reason why I chose to study medicine in the first place. Insert stories by him are always FTW <3 I didn't feel sleepy at all in his class today- alhamdulillah. Yay for me.

But having students from 3 unis in the same ward... o_o. And tomorrow's on-call >.<

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rhi & Rachie received the letters. So did Silv, Ana-sensei, Diana, Kak Fad and Ija. Earlier was Pan, AiAi, Kitten and Angel. I'm aiming for Adrumon & Nelly next; maybe Kato-poo too- I just have to figure out what. Pan's bday is coming in 6 days- self reminding.

On the other note, I was studying in the kitchen/living area when I felt the dining table moved/shook. And when I looked on the floor, I realized the ground was moving. I seriously thought it was the house, until I saw Denise's post on an earthquake in Sumatera O.o
Sham felt it too, so we weren't imagining things!

Footnote:
coming post- Photos: "While Waiting in the Car" ; Food Shukudai: Coffee @ Boston
list of things to do: psy-catching up/assignments, lj-catching up, sending the youngest one to KLIA, raya-open houses(?), crimson & circle

Photos: Mom's Little Garden

Theme: Mom's Little Garden
Venue: KL Home, Kuala Lumpur
Date: August 28th, 2009

On the lighter note, I guess I post this here. Got a phone call from a friend of 18 years (2 more years and it'll be 20 years of friendship! yay!) and that somehow lightened up my mood.

I've been wanting to capture some of these since the plants were sent from Sungai Petani last June. When I took the camera out to take the purple flower shots Rachie sent, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get some from the garden too; after all, the evening sun was lovely. Please enjoy this~ ^.^



















Yes, if you're wondering, I love macro shots. Another favourite of mine is capturing people- candid, because I think that's when the emotion comes out. But of course, with capturing people's picture, it'll be more of personal collection, right? Sometimes when I look at some mag scans, I wonder if I can pictures like that too.

At the moment, in our (read: me and my brother) wish list is the 18-200mm lens... but err... yeah, that will take some time seing at how it's out of our budget at the moment.

Next: Purple Flowers // While Waiting In the Car...

. . .

I feel like I'm being forced to choose between something that I cannot choose.
. . .

Fine... If I do it, will you be happy?






It breaks my heart, but it doesn't matter now, does it?
I hope you are happy

Special Education

It really is disheartening when you see bullied children in school. There are two big categories in here and my heart goes to these two categories. It really is sad when you think about it, especially when school is supposed to be the place where kids' potentials are explored. To actually take the responsibility to shape a person is big and I salute teachers because they are brave enough to take this responsibility; especially because children are Allah's trusts to us.

If teachers realized of how big their responsibility is, I'm sure they would be and are great teachers who nourish and flourish their students.

Therefore, it is really heartbreaking when the teachers themselves are involved in student bullying- be it physical, emotional or verbal; or when teachers closed their eyes on the bullying cases happening at school. Bullying is another issue that I don't understand the reasons behind it. Bullied person will end up either being a bully himself or it will make him or her inferior person; in which both are no good. And the fact that people hide behind phrases like "We could survived bullying back then, why can’t you now?" is just utter rubbish.

Where in any religion teaches bullying?

Back to the topic, when I said two big categories, it's referring to the normal kids and the special kids i.e. kids in special classes. With regards to special education in Malaysia, it is in my opinion that we are way behind compared to the other developed countries, or perhaps even compared to Singapore.

No doubt it is good that we have Special Education for these special children but there are more that needs to be done. When I mention special children they refer to LD (Learning Disability; known as Mental Retardation or MR before), CP (cerebral palsy), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder), Down's syndrome, Asperger's Syndrome, autistics, GDD (Global Developmental Delay), and many more. These children, they not only need special attention and special care, but they also need specially trained teachers to handle them.

Sadly in Malaysia, we are very behind in our knowledge on these children. What we have to understand is each and every one of these children is different. Each of them has their own abilities and weaknesses. And most of these children can't be dealt with punishment; and what I mean by punishment include hitting and yelling. Children like those with autism are very sensitive to yelling; it would set them off and yet many can’t understand it.

I guess it all comes back to the root- accepting these children. You know, for the parents to be blessed with these special children, they are among the strongest people I've met in the course of a few weeks spent in Child Psychiatry clinics. For us, we only see these children in the short hours in the clinics. And even in school, they are only there for half a day. But these parents are taking care of them for the rest of their life. Every parent wants to see their children soar high in the sky and with these children, even with these limitations, the least that they could hope is for them to be able to stand independently and live in the society.

And truth to be told, our society is NOT ready to accept these children yet- with the comments of 'leave them at home', 'don't bring them to the shopping centre' and what not. Do we realize that when we are not accepting these children, we are indirectly not accepting what Allah has given us?

The reason behind this article would always be the cases I've seen in the clinics. My heart breaks especially when a case of bullying came and the parents have to fight tooth and nail for the right of their child. Hearing comments like "they were advised to not to go to school" is just disheartening. Seeing how distress a child is when school is mentioned is heartbreaking. Seeing how a chid refuse to speak up the truth because of fear is saddening.

If this is to be translated as a painting, it's as though the existence of special education is just a cover-up. It's frustrating to see that sometimes when the higher up people have vision of having better education, it is not conducted well on the prosecution level. And when matters are highlighted, everyone is afraid to speak up or even speak the truth because of fear, pride and unwillingness to take the responsibilities.

These children deserve the same education and treatment as the other children. Sadly, we don’t see that because our eyes only see their 'flaws' when it is not even 'flaw' but gift.

These parents with gifted children, I have much respect. Some even go all the way to stop working to give their full attention in training these children to better equip them for real life. Some may even consider going overseas for better education. Some even risks their jobs to fight for their children's right.

Are we not touched?

Why don't we put ourselves in their shoes? What if God gives us these special children? Will we be able to love and nurture them? Will we know how hard it is to give them the education that they deserve? Can we even accept them and how they are?

There are a lot more issues if I were to write about children. But one thing for sure is how parents treat the children and their influence makes much difference. The same would go to the next levels- teachers, peers and the society.

The case today, if I were to talk about, I probably will end up with tears. And these tears would be tears of frustration. It instantly reminded me on a character’s fight for her adopted child who was a Down's Syndrome girl. It’s as though I'm seeing the storyline in real life; the parents will face a lot of challenges, prejudice and perhaps isolation. But if they don't make their voices heard, if they opt for the same as everyone else who choose to shut their mouth because they are afraid and ashamed, then forever will these children be ill-treated and mis-treated, behind all the pretence of the goods that are 'done' for them.

In the book called The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, the character fights not just for her child, but also for the future of the children who are like her child. This unselfishness is something that we should applaud them on.

You know, school is supposed to be a fun place for children to learn and explore different skills. When it’s becoming a place of restraint, we are actually limiting their potential.

Worse, what will be our answer to Him on the Day of the Judgement?

Now, in saying this, I'm not accusing teachers; I'm just saying that we need more specially trained teachers to teach these children because ideally for the special needs children, the ratio of teacher to children is 1 to 3 -5 students. Placing teachers without special train would also stres them out and hence it could lead to bullying like this.

Kindness

The two kindest people I've ever met, husband and wife and both whose profession is noble,
We were helping them moving the few things left behind,
Tiredness was clearly shown, and we were worried.
For these two kindest people, I really pray that their life is blessed and happy till the end of days
Because even when we're no longer learning under them officially,
they still offer their humble hands, smiling and wanting

One of the many reasons prompting me to write this,
is 5x10
I believe it has made a few people I know cried
For me it's just simply nostalgic, memorable and full of love
The rythm is just simply beautiful
And the lyrics... they make me smile each time I read every word

When I was listening to it, I remember these 2 kind people among the many people that have made great impacts in my life.

For that, thank you~