Was recently extremely taken with dance tracks. In fact, Craig David's Insomnia is persistently on my playlist and it's also playing in my head. I like that it's got a nice strong bass, plus a catchy, simple but somewhat sophisticated tune to it. Anyone has similar to share? Push the speakers all the way up and enjoy this one!
Now the other discovery this week is this artiste, Lady Gaga. Pretty interesting dance tracks incorporating glam disco, pop and a little eccentricity here and there. An interesting act (check out her other live performances) - she uses these glasses with LCD screens, wears swimsuit-bottoms and has this lightbulb-tipped baton which she calls her "Disco Stick". I actually thought her "Disco Stick" which was featured in another song's lyrics referred to something a little less innocent. And she can sing live too, wow!
Had a lamentable Xmas this year. Was on call on the eve, which actually turned out to be a bedsore call - I slept almost 7 hours! But as anyone will tell you, you'll still feel hardly rested. It's the kind of sleep that you wake very easily from, and I felt like I slept only 4 hours. Was very disappointed that we didn't have our gingerbread house this year. I know no one really eats it, somehow I always look forward to doing it. And I know where I'll be next year, and the next, and definitely no gingerbread houses for the next 2 years. Whatever. The only decent one I've seen on sale was an ice cream version by Hagen Daaz, which costs a whopping $130.
Last day tomorrow ...
I usually write an end-of-year review kind of thing, but I guess I'll hold it off till I get back from my break.
Alas, on call today! Just a quick one so I can at least have the satisfaction that I blogged today. Weird eh. 4 more days to go! I'm actually getting a tad worried now. I have a couple of things still in the post. Camera batteries, to be exact.
Went back to NUH briefly last night to dish out some chocolates, and had the most wonderful bitching session with the nurses there for 15 mins or so.
Hmm .. contemplating whether to bring my laptop to call today or not. Maybe I'll just leave it.
Had a rather strange day today with Monty. Never thought I'd actually be doing this one day. Fun though! (And mildly embarrassing, the credit affair .. so now we know that we can't buy those huge plasma TVs off the shelf! How do people buy things then?)
OMG, I just have to rant. Dopey's probably heard all about it, but I'm currently like managing more than half of the department's patients. 38 patients today, got rid of like 10, and on take again tomorrow. If this keeps up, I'll have 50+ patients to see on Saturday. F*ck.
Feeling a little trapped right now. Busy days, and a horrible deadline looming for work. It must get done, this time.
Anyway, final preparations are almost done! It's been quite intensive actually, planning for accommodation, leisure, tickets etc and making sure things are as controlled as possible. Haha I know. Control freak. Bought a second-hand camera (one of those ultra-old Sony cameras) and with it came a myriad of problems. As I said, it's ultra-old, so it still uses those first-generation Memory Sticks. Not MS Pro Duos. The light blue, long MS with a maximum capacity of 128MBs (gasp!! do these things still exist?) So obviously it only stores 40 pics max, which means I either need to get more Memory Sticks, or I need a portable photo wallet. Also, the lamentable battery life has forced me to buy 2 extra batteries and a charger online. I actually bought it for it's underwater capabilities, so I'm hoping things will turn out well.
To be very honest though, $160 for the entire thing including the waterproof housing is quite a steal. The marine pack alone costs $350+ retail, and the set I got is really rather well-preserved. (I think "preserved" is apt for a 7-year old camera?)
Did big-time splurging on the other, normal camera though. Bought a cushioned bag which doubles up as a small backpack, although it'll probably contain only 500ml of water, money, a small face towel and some personal artifacts. Hmm .. actually, that's about all I need. Also got myself a small cleaning kit, and a couple of filter attachments. Might as well try to take some decent pictures. Now, I need to see if I need to buy an extra battery or not. Urgh. Will most likely get those el-cheapo 3rd party $12 batteries.
Why go such such expense? I badly need a break, and I'm so going to make it satisfying, haha. Including excuses to buy things.
And of course, I'm still waiting for Monty to come back so we can do some shopping. And that'll more or less wrap it up.
*****
Thinking about a next dream vacation ... probably that'll be years later. Maybe a week-long stay in the Maldives, on stilted bungalows and snorkelling quite literally at the doorstep? Dreaming about vacations sure lifts the spirits up.
Post-call today ... Had an irritating weekend call. My entire Sunday was spent sitting in the call room in front of my laptop, touching up photos, and wondering what the hell to do to while away time. But the moment 12 midnight came - boom! Everyone started getting admitted into the ICU. Anyway, I managed to get off early today. Sitting in front of the computer, post-call, blogging, and sipping away at a measure of Drambuie that my sis brought back from her trip to Ozzy .. sweet.
Did Pulau Ubin & Chek Jawa on Saturday. It was pretty fun, since we packed our own sandwiches for a nice lunch, and trekked there instead of taking the bicycles. (Someone actually died there recently while cycling). There were actually wild boars roaming around, no joke. And they weren't the least frightened of humans. I apologise for the poor shot - it was one of those "Shoot it now! now! now!" situations.
We also took an off-road trail that was slightly creepy - it was along the mangrove coast, and I kept half-expecting a crocodile to leap out of the water at us. It was fruitful though. We passed by some undisturbed patches of ferns and promptly harvested a bagful of tender fronds to cook at home. For first-timers at cooking ferns, we weren't bad at all!
Chek Jawa is so different from when we visited it 2 years (I think) ago. Because of beachcombers and irresponsible behavior, they have built this boardwalk so that you can no longer access the beach. Not for some people though. This family of 3 climbed down and started collecting snails - for consumption I think. Doing this at East Coast or Kranjji is fine, but NOT at a protected sanctuary! Yx and I were seriously pissed. We stood there staring at them from the boardwalk, camera in hand, and attracted a small group of curious people ("what are they staring at?"). The shameless poachers eventually got cold feet and threw back the bunch of stuff they collected. Just for good measure though, I really did take shots of them. These people ought to be dragged off to jail, starved, and publicly executed.
There was loads of wildlife as usual, but it's really a huge shame about the boardwalk. Back when we were allowed on the beach itself you could see anemones, starfish, and other cnidarians. We did spot some stuff though, including this tiny pistol shrimp that failed to evade Yx's roving eye.
It happened to be low tide that day, and there were plenty of photo opportunities. It was way too hot and bothersome to take out a tripod though, else a long exposure shot at this angle would have been amazing.
We ended a very nice day by eating at the pier. It was quite amazing - we finished up a huge platter of hor fun, kai lan, sweet & sour pork, and a 1kg crab. The crab was seriously good. Absolutely no qualms about going back there just for the crab actually, hehe.
Just a tiny little bit of ranting before I go on to more sunny things. The load of us have been rather grouchy the last few days. And it's true - the TTSH nurses are truly terrible. They are like pesky midgets hovering about, totally unhelpful, and utterly incompetent. They have a hell lot to learn from their NUH counterparts - those nurses, I'll take seriously at any time; if they call me, I'll be there in a second. But the TTSH nurses need to learn that (a lot of) certain things are NOT emergencies, and they WILL get snapped at if they call me 10x a day for such absolute rubbish. I have never been more generous with snappy replies and phone-slamming than I am now.
So take today for example. Stupid nurse 1: "Doctor, you're the one in charge of Ward*Bed*?" Me: "No. I am only helping another doctor print the MC." Stupid nurse1: "Oh, but your name is on the MC .." Me: *Rolling my eyes and gritting teeth* "Obviously. I just said, I printed the MC for another doctor. But I am NOT IN CHARGE." Stupid nurse 1: "So who's in charge of this patient?" Me (thinking) - "Fucking open the goddamn file and see who wrote the morning ward round entries. Simple enough? Or do you want me to write step-by-step FAQ instructions for you, or maybe do up a Quicktime instructional video for you?"
By the way, I get 2-3 such calls a day - at least. By the way, the male nurses are much better than the females. At least they've got common sense.
Anyway, out for a real trip tomorrow! Really excited. Seems like everyone's leaving for somewhere or another. I myself would love to go to Japan, but alas. I'll need to dig out my old textbooks and meditate on them for several months before I can even navigate there.
Ew, the expenditure ... looking forward to a real break!!
This song somehow always transports me back to NUH. It reminds me of even my HO calls and the call room, early morning 5am quiet walks (yes, HO calls *can* be quiet and afford strolls even), and also MO days. It's a lovely feeling.
