DoEs AbsenCE maKEs the HeARt GrOW FondEr?

31st Jan- CNY, visitng uncle david's house first, met up with all the relatives and cousins and cousin-in-laws whom I have not met... had lunch which included pizza, satay and luckily mum fried some noodles cos I did not really like the pizza and satay... did not get to stay long at uncle david's place cos papa wanted to go ah ma's house for the next round of festivities... all I can say is most of the cousins and uncles and aunties looked like they have lost some weight, and the 2 new members to the family seemed nice... next up was ah ma's house, which as always, was boring, cos I don't really talk to them ever... and the food was not great either, and the fact that ah ma's house is quite small and hot, made it worse... all I can say is that thank goodness I only see them as and when I am here during CNY otherwise they are not people whom I would want to get to know, except for ah ma of course, and 8th uncle... after that, went to the temple to pray and visit 爷爷。。。 and then after that, came back home and uncle patrick and family were already here... purposely left the door to the room closed hoping that they would get the hint not to come in but of course not... anyway, it's exhausting despite not having to help out with the cooking but the cleaning up and having to entertain is tiring in itself... no wonder pongie does not like this part of the day... anyway uncle david and family came a little later, but not close to the cousins there as well... so by the time dinner was completed and the last of the relatives left and cleaning up, it was already quite late... and we were all exhausted... 

1st Feb- had this crazy idea to go visit the river hongbao that day... so mum and I took a train down to the esplanade first and it was soo hot that day, and there were quite a few people there at the river hongbao already... not that great actually... and after that we got lost trying to find the bridge linking to the gardens by the bay, eventually got there, and we were starving, initially thought we could have lunch at the marina bay sands foodcourt but it was packed, so no choice in the end ended up eating burgers at gardens by the bay, expensive and not very nice... should not have ordered the milkshake, I drank most of it and ended up feeling so bloated... and then after lunch, I thought I could finally go and see the conservatory, but of course  not, there was a long queue at the ticketing counter when we got there... it was so disgusting... in the end, we sat for awhile and decided to head home... 

2nd Feb- went to macritichie reservoir in the morning for a walk, and it was already quite croweded when we got there... after that, decided to go check out the nasi lemak place that came to the singapore day in sydney, and of course, got there and there was already a queue... ended up waiting for approx 30mins and we finished the meal in approx 5mins... and that's with taking pics in between... the rice and chilli is probably the only things that stood out, otherwise everything else was the same... but of course, singaporeans being singaporeans there was an even longer queue when we were leaving... decided to go chomp chomp for dinner and we ordered stingray, satay... hmmm, both were not the best... but it was not very crowded cos only a few stalls were open that day... and after that, papa suggested that we go to the raffles town club for a free movie, and we ended up watching wrath of the titans... it was alright, probably not a movie which I would pay to watch though... 

3rd Feb- went to bukit merah central again for breakfast, had nasi lemak, ok it really was no longer as nice as last time... met up with wanjin for a movie called the monkey king, I thought it was alright, there was a few funny parts, but alot of CGI of course, had lunch together before that, I ordered the 鱼片米粉... not nice... but I did manage to eat famous amos cookies... after that met up with mum and papa, walked around for abit, went to taka and wisma, bought a dress at dorothy perkins for pongie, and had another dress brought over from another outlet cos they did not have her size in this outlet... and then went for dinner at marche at 313... it was quite crowded both at the movies and at orchard in general... we were all not very hungry, so we just shared 1 pizza and 1 drink... it was alright, nothing fantastic actually... after that went to visit the really high class and new robinsons, all the clothing were at least $100 and above, and that's after discount... nothing that I could afford actually... 

4th Feb- went to walk in the morning at macritichie again, and then went to whampoa for breakfast, this time I had mang zang kueh and soya bean... and also got to buy my butter bread... after that, uncle jeffrey rang and invited me for lunch at nex... walked around for abit and ended up eating korean food at the foodcourt, again not very nice... and not authentic, it's all chinese cooking... after that, walked around the place again and we had baskin and robbins ice cream, which had the same flavours... and after that, uncle jeffrey dropped me at aljunied mrt, and I took a train down to bugis village to buy the caps for pongie and xtine... and then took a train to jurong east to meet up with siti and veena... siti suggested that we eat at this restaurant called paul, it's more a pastry restaurant , and I ended up eating dessert cos did not like any of the mains and it was quite expensive... and the 3 of us ended up also eating dessert, and then deciding to eat at macdonalds... so siti still looks and acts the same even though she is now a married lady... veena has lost weight but she is still the same too... we were debating when the last time we met up was, and we could not remember... and now I realised after looking through facebook (one of the better uses of facebook), that we have not seen each other since 2010, wow that's like 4 years ago... time really flies :(

was debating on whether to download the korean show the prime minister and I... cos initially after reading the recaps, it seemed promising even though I was initially against the pairing of yoona and lee bum soo... and then it was the last episode yesterday, and after reading the comments of the ending from netizens... not quite that keen anymore in watching the show... so probably now waiting for the kim soo hyun show to finish... 

新年快乐。。。 龙马精神。。。 心想事成。。。HUAT AH!

1st post for Feb 2014... Welcome to the Year of the Horse :)

24th Jan- day of my flight home... not a good day all in all, starting from the the morning, suay suay it was the heaviest period flow day, and my luggage was overweight for some reason even though there were not much stuff in it, except the cheese, ham and uncle's moisturiser and wine... in the end, had to stand aside and start repacking the luggage... and the flight back on Scoot was not the best, some turbulence, the smells of the food that people were eating were all making me want to puke... and the long flight... in the end, when I finally arrived at Changi airport, had a headache and still feeling pukey, even after eating the fishball noodle that I was looking forward to... finally arrived home, unpacked and slept... unfortunately, jetlag combined with 时差... resulted in me waking up at 0400... it was actually quite windy and cool the first few days and then the heat returned :(

25th Jan- went to Redhill market to eat my long awaited chee cheong fun... the stall, auntie and uncle still looks the same, the market still looks the same, except being so crowded due to CNY... the coffeeshop did expand a little though... my chee cheong fun still looks and tastes the same... yummy :) after breakfast, did a driveby to nainai's house, although now bryan and his wife are staying there so we can't go up... after that, went home, did not do much, was looking for the soft toys ie Lumpy... went to this place for dinner that night, and had fried fish, and youtiao... the food was not that great, the only thing that was really nice was the sambal chilli that they served the fish with... in the end, we actually 打包 the chilli back home :) after that, mum and I went to Taka to join in the annual foodhall festivities... it was of course crowded with people sampling and buying CNY goodies... bought some 酸梅 for myself and got to eat fresh kueh bulu... yummy :)

26th Jan- went to whampoa market to eat breakfast and do marketing... ate my 云吞面, I have to say, the fried wanton not as nice now... and got to drink my 豆花水... that was yummy as always... went to buy the bread but they were still in the process of baking so only managed to buy a small butter bread... after that, we went to visit ah ma and met up with papa's relatives, especially 8th uncle... he's probably my fav uncle among everyone else on papa's side of relatives... he bought mang zhang kueh and hum jin bang for me... which I am sorry to say was not very nice... we decided to visit the gardens by the bay in the evening... and we were lucky cos we arrived at the same time the lighting show started, it was really pretty... too bad my camera is not the best in capturing stuff at night... only the supertrees were open though, so did not get to see the rest of the gardens...

27th Jan- went to collect my passport, now my passport number is different from my IC number, which is really annoying... cos now I have to whip out my passport everytime I need the passport number details... after that, papa and I walked towards bugis, and ate hainan chicken rice at a coffeeshop opposite the national library... the rice and chilli were really nice... and after that went to laminate my cluedo cards, and then walked abit of bugis, and went to have dessert at this really traditional looking dessert place opposite bugis junction... it was not very nice... but I got to eat my 面包夹ice cream... it was really yummy :) after that, we went to fetch mum at work and went to eat din tai feng at JEM, the new shopping centre... oh the 小笼包 was so good... 

28th Jan- went jogging in the am at lower peirce reservoir, it was quite ulu when we first arrived, but more people arrived as we were leaving... after that went to eat roti prata, yeah I know, it was pretty contradicting... after that I even stopped over to buy 豆沙饼... roti prata was not the best, but the 豆沙饼 was really nice... after that, I went to bugis junction, bugis + and village to look for the stuff for prisy and pongie... it was really crowded even though it was a weekday... after that, went to the 观音庙 to pray, then to OG to buy pillow for pongie and also bought some jogging shorts... met up with Jo at Toa Payoh for dinner in the evening... had time to walk around the place cos she was late,. it still looked the same though... we had Ya Kun Toast for dinner, and it was not very nice actually, don't understand the hype around the place... Jo is getting married in Jan 2015, happy for her, told her will try and be back for the wedding, but not sure yet at this stage though... 

29th Jan- went to Whampoa market again for breakfast and marketing, this time I ate fishball noodle cos there was such a long queue the other day, so I thought ok I will try and see if it was really nice, and in the end the vedict is that I don't think so... it tasted like all the other fishball noodles I ate, nothing very special... after that, I caught a train to chinatown, and it was so hot and getting crowded, so the whole time I was thinking to myself that I must be mad to be there at this time and weather... after that walked down to central shopping centre at clarke quay, and decided to treat myself to lunch at the blisshouse... ok I have to say the decor was really nice and something difference, but the food was crap... and the staff there probably took pity on me cos I was all by myself and took some pics for me... after that, I was pretty tired and hot already, and btw, clothing here are no longer cheap... but decided to take the free ferry ride to marine bay thinking to go see the river hongbao... when I got there, I decided it was probably not worth the heat and aching legs, so ended up going home instead... although managed to take some really good pics of the merlion, marina bay sands... met up with huimin and fran in the evening for dinner, huimin suggested having korean hotpot, so we walked from tanjong pagar mrt to chinatown, and had to queue cos it was apparently quite popular... the kimchi pancake was quite nice but the seafood hotpot was not to my liking so did not end up eating much... after that went to take some pics along chinatown, it was still quite crowded even though it was like 2200... chatted about a few things including me potentially trying out blind dates :(

30th Jan- CNY eve, went to Bukit Merah Central to eat nasi lemak, sadly it's not as nice as it used to be, dunno why but the luncheon meat tasted really weird... but I felt back and finished it all cos the auntie cooked it specially for me... after that... went home and mummy had a half day off that day, so met up with her at Boon Keng station and walked around for abit thinking that we could buy some kueh bulu but it was sold out and people were pretty much closing so in the end had macdonalds for lunch, I was looking forward to having curly fries and iced lemon tea, but the fries turned out a disappointment, even the fillet oh fish was not as good... the only yummy thing was the iced lemon tea... had our reunion dinner with ah ma and papa's youngest brother that night... I ate chee cheong fun for dinner that night, there was so much left from when papa's sister bought on sunday...to be continued :) one week down, 2 more weeks left :(

SCorCher of a SUMMEr...

HOT HOT HOT... 44 degrees at work every day this week... urrghhh... 

nothing very much happening at the moment... work still the same, although there will be some changes happening soon... frances covering in N1G for 4 weeks, Kirti's going to inpt rehab and Rachel replacing her in MRT till May maybe longer... and there will be new registrars starting... and Millie, Mat and Liz are leaving, and there will be new grads in Feb... which means that when I return from leave, there will be a few new faces around, oh and also Kate is pregnant, and will be on maternity leave from July... still getting stressed over drawing rails and ramps, and I dunno what I can do to improve my skills and be less stressed... alamak... I just hope to get all these troublesome things over and done with before my leave, so I can enjoy my holidays without worrying about it...

other than that... finally finished watching the journey a voyage show... don't like the ending, they killed off one of my favourite characters... but I don't mind rewatching some parts of the show... still no new nice shows at present, so rewatching really cheesy shows like meteor garden and boys over flowers... it's really cheesy but I really am still laughing and crying during some parts of the show...

counting down to next friday, when I finally am flying back home for 3 weeks of holidays... can't wait, wish time would pass quicker...

YEAR of THE HorSE...

wow first post for the year 2014... Happy NEW year! exciting events that I know will be happening this year... going back home in Jan, World Cup in June, Fran possibly visiting in June, ?maybe a new job...

23-24 Dec 2013... boring, helping out aged care and acute, mum and papa arrived on xmas eve, and of course mum brought so much stuff again this trip that I am stressed just looking at the fridge and the pantry... was able to leave work earlier on xmas eve, so got to come home earlier and had dinner together... pizza actually...

25 Dec 2013... stayed at home during the day, and went over to auntie's for dinner, caught up on running man...  nothing very exciting...

26 Dec 2013... went to cronulla beach, and it was actually not very crowded that day, despite it being a hot day, and there are actually rock pools which you can go into if you don't like going into the actual sea... wanted to go have lunch at hurstville, but the shops were all closed, so ended up coming home for dinner... 

27 Dec 2013... went out for lunch at eastwood jonga jip with uni gang... the food was not very nice, and did not stay very long... after that visited auntie's place for awhile, and came back home... again nothing very exciting...

28 Dec 2013... sat- went out for lunch at leichhardt, initially wanted to try the brazilian buffet, however, got there and decided that it was too expensive, so we ended up eating at this other brazilian restaurant, which just has your standard western style meals... and realised that the brazilian place we went to when I was still at Restart is no longer there... after that, we went to buy a new vacuum cleaner at castle hill, settled on a hoover in the end...

29 Dec 2013... went to watch the hobbit 2 at hornsby, definitely much better than the first one, but again not something I would be rewatching... after that, went for lunch and then went to yochi's house to have a look... after that went to parklea markets briefly, then decided to do some grocery shopping... after that, decided to try out the korean bbq place at turramurra, actually the food is not too bad, despite the limited variety... the only thing I hate about korean bbq is the smell... 

30 Dec 2013... back to work, boring...

31 Dec 2013... new year's eve... another boring day, and the only good thing really was that it was jenny's last day, and although I did not have to work that closely with her this time around, I still am pretty glad that she is leaving... and she got the locum TACP job at Westmead... although I also do know that there are some people in the dept who also don't like her... anyway, becos karen was working that day, she reluctantly let us off early an hour only... work was so boring, and it has been quite hot this week too...

JinGLE BellS aRE RiNGiNg... 3 MORe DAYs...

false alarm, thought I would be getting a new car most likely a toyota corolla, not that hyungie is bad or anything, just that the servicing was really expensive... but after mum and papa's 'advice', not getting one in the end... nowadays, bluetooth, cruise control are all standard, the only thing that is not would still be the leather seats, but the new corolla interior design dashboard is really ugly though... but if we want the leather seats it would still be corolla, went to look at honda civic and nissan pulsar, no for me, the new i30 looks good, especially the red colour, but if we want leather seats have to fork out an additional $10000, which is crazy... 

other than that, nothing very much happening, work is dying down, people are already in the festive mood, and MRT not taking new pts, so just catching up on reports, stats and helping acute out for the next 2 days I think... 

still waiting IMpatiently every day for the new episodes to come out, it's so frustrating, even though I know never to start a show whilst it's still airing, I still fall into the same trap every time... it's still very hot these past few weeks, disgusting :(

13 more DAYs...

afternoon tea buffet was alright, there was a variety of both savouries and sweets, but I have to say, most stuff there are not to my liking... oh well...

started watching the mediacorp show 'the journey', it was alright, certain parts of the show are nicer than the others... the only irritating thing is that I have to wait every day for a new episode to be uploaded... still  no new nice shows atm, reading up on the grandpas over flowers actually... 

work wise, we were so quiet like 2 weeks ago, and then it suddenly became so busy, and becos I also had a student for the last 2 weeks, it was even more hectic... and painful patients... and I seem to always stay back really late the day before my ADO day... today got off work at like 6pm... both Kirti and Kara are off the week of xmas, so there is pretty much just myself working the 2 weeks in between... and the team is talking abt reducing the referrals then, so we'll see... still no jobs out there atm, and there are a few people at work who are also looking for a job now... today was our dept xmas lunch, and secret santa, this year received some xmas tupperware... probably going into the xmas gifts recycling pile again... decided not to attend any xmas parties this year... just feeling antisocial and most of the events are like after work, so don't really feel up to it anyway... recently my stomach has not been really good, especially after that episode last week, today had to stop by macdonalds on the way to go to the toilet... probably all the crap I eat at night...

it's been really hot this past 2 weeks, urrgghhh and I dunno why, but since coming back to MRT, I seem to be doing alot more HV than I used to...

booked our tickets to see the lion king musical in March 2014, so planning to take nainai there as well... and did I mention that mum and papa are coming to visit again??!!

超衰。。。

suay man... today has to be one of the most traumatising and worse days ever!

left home in the morning as usual, was driving halfway when my tummy got really painful, but it sometimes happens and I usually am able to control until I arrive at work and go to the toilet, but today, for some reason, it was so bad that while I was walking to work from where I was parked, could no longer control it, and shitted in my panties, got to the toilet, pulled my panties down and I was like Holy SHIT! it was far worse than I had thought, my panty was soiled, and I am pretty sure my workpants was as well, quickly got out my wipes and started cleaning frantically, and I was already late for work by this time... wiped off the crap as much as I could, and decided to take a sick day off, told work that I had really bad cramps, and quickly did my handovers, it was only my poor student's second day of placement, and got her to tag Kara for the day, and had to postpone my home visit planned for today... drove home, got out of hyungie and had to wipe the seat as well, becos it was stained too... got home finally!, stripped everything off, had to throw away my new panty, and actually had another smaller bout of diarrhoea again, showered from head to toe, and wash my work clothing with lots of detergent... it was so gross!!!!! this has never happened to me before, was trying to think what I could have eaten the day before... the only other time I could remember when something similar happened but it was with my period and that was back in uni... I think people at work must be wondering what the hell is happening with me??!! I was sure I looked really bad and frazzled... so now I am back at home, nothing really exciting to do, no new shows to watch, except this new mediacorp show but have to wait for new episodes to be uploaded every day, cos stupid toggle does not want overseas business even if you are willing to pay for the subscription...

looking forward to the afternoon tea buffet this weekend, apparently there is not many places which offer a high tea buffet, there are only 3 in sydney, expensive, but I am really looking forward to it... we will probably stuff ourselves till we are sick... :)

WE NEed the RaiN... BUt...

it's really inconvenient when it rains... 

work wise, to date, I actually found it not too bad working with the new PT at this stage, so no complaints from me yet... hardly got to see you know who nowadays, only the car... and stupid Ren told me some things which made me feel awkward and worried, but seriously sometimes I really can't tell if he is telling the truth or not... anyway, it's been quite busy in MRT which is good in a way, but please do not give me anymore mad patients... decided not to attend the OT dept xmas dinner this year, cos it's at rooty hill rsl again, and don't really want to have to talk to certain people... also decided not to attend pongie's xmas party... probably also no to the rehab dinner as well... being anti-social this year...

nainai and uncles came... went for dinner on friday, the day they arrived, and went to the usual tourist spot in Kiama/temple/lookout point, the only thing was it was full of flies that day, and it was hot... not very pleasant actually... sunday... went over to watch movies and has pizza... had my day off the following friday... went to chatswood to see the specialist, told me the same things, and then cos it was raining heavily that day, and I had to park in mandarin centre, and was late becos I could not find parking, so went out without an umbrella, and as I was walking back, slipped and fell, landed on my left knee and right ass before I even realised what happened, now my knee has a big bruise and really sore and sensitive... and of course, I was wearing slippers that day... all that preaching about falls prevention at work obviously worked well... :( after that, went to auntie's place again and had pizza again... saturday... went to the shops cos pongie wanted to look for more clothing, and went to Outback for dinner with the family... not to my liking, still prefer ribs and rumps... sunday, went out for lunch at korean hotpot place at eastwood with uncle and prisy... raining the whole weekend and today... could not do our weekly washing... 

marathoned this new korean drama called secret with ji sung in it... melodrama, which is really not my genre, but I found it much better than I hear your voice or the winter blows... those were pretty much once off shows for me... so now rewatching old shows again, until another good drama comes along...

真的。。。 再见了。。。

attempted to bake the brownie pre-mix which I bought that day, it was a complete and utter failure, and the worst thing was that 1. it's not the first time I have baked this brownie and 2. it's a pre-mix for goodness sake andrea! how hard can it be??!! and now I am stuck with having to finish all on my own... :(

no new shows to watch at this stage, still rewatching old shows... cannot believe it's already november, not that I am complaining, cos I am looking forward to January... still no news about my job application... alamak, am I ever gonna leave Nepean, at this rate, come June 2014, I might not have a job, if MRT loses our funding... the day finally came... kevin's last day in MRT... plans to take a team pic or even say what I wanted to say did not happen in the end... what's new andrea??!! managed to say a really quick thank you and all the best cos I had to do a last minute handover for a pt... talk about bad timing... anyway, the next 6 months is going to be interesting to put it politely I think... with Kirti coming into the team... and Frances obviously likes her... work is going to become boring again now that I have nothing to look forward to... nainai and uncles coming next week, so will keep us occupied for awhile...

SUmmER iN OCTobER...

news since the last post... really bad bushfires especially in the blue mountains, a few of the people at work were affected, and the hospital was told to prepare for an emergency last wednesday but luckily, the predicted disaster did not happen and it was actually pretty quiet that day... and it's only oct which brings me dread just thinking when summer actually comes around... arrghhh, it's been so hot already... 

finished watching the drama the master's sun, and I actually really enjoyed it, better than my expectations... much better than I hear your voice, the main leads are actually funny... despite being scary at some initial parts... pongie found this new singaporean drama website toggle during the singapore day... went on the website to have a look, and was really tempted to subscribe to them so I could watch some of the old mediacorp shows, but then noted that it was only available to people in singapore, which was ridiculous, how can you not want to make more money by making it available to people outside of singapore??!! so now I am back to rewatching old dramas again until something nice comes up... the amazing race is back again, so watching that every week in addition to running man... otherwise, nothing much else happening...

baked pandan cake and the flourless choc cake on my own today, ok not really on my own, with mum providing some guidance over skype... did not turn out that well though... which was abit disappointing... and the washing up is a killer, might as well just buy outside, how I wish they are easily available...

LEt'S All be KiASU...

nothing much very exciting happened the last 2 weeks, finally the Singapore Day which we were all looking forward to came and went... it was boiling hot yesterday, not much shade, good thing was the food and drinks were really free, although there were massive queues for the most of the stuff there, I was so shitty about the fact that I should have gone to queue for the chai tau kueh first before the nasi lemak, although the nasi lemak was really good, went to queue for it twice... had old chang kee, satay which was disappointing, stingray which was yummy even though the weather was not the best time to eat that... by the end of the day, most of the food was sold out, except chicken rice, so I decided to go queue for it... when it was almost my turn, was told that they had run out of chicken rice, I was fuming, the rice was the only reason I queued half an hour... the various stalls were also quite nice, and of course, the goodie bags... the number of singaporeans in sydney actually surprised me, there were alot of young people... we pretty much stayed for the whole thing... although the live entertainment and singing was probably the other disappointing thing... I actually took a photo with Dr Teo Chee Hean, our deputy prime minister, which was news to me yesterday!

nainai and uncles Jeffrey and David are visiting in Nov... this should be interesting... finally confirmed my flights back home in Jan... will be there for 3 weeks, unfortunately nainai and pongie will be here in sydney though... oh well...still watching the drama I hear your voice... for some reason, despite the good reviews and high ratings, the show is not really appealing to me to the point that I am rushing to finish it and staying up late to watch it... but I am also watching another drama, The Master's Sun... read disappointing reviews about the idol drama THe Heirs, same old BOys over Flowers plotline... 

workwise, learnt some surprising news over the last week... Nicole is pregnant again with her 3rd child, Ivy is also pregnant again with her 2nd, and Jenny's contract ends in Dec, I was actually pleased about that, and crossing my fingers that they don't extend her contract... Mat, Millie and Kate C are leaving in end Jan... Sarah C left on Friday for Westmead as well... and Alex apparently will be having some shoulder surgery next week so will probably be off for some time as well... so it looks like the dept is back to being short of staff again... and Deanna told me that she is no longer my supervisor and Karen is... still deciding how to react and feel about that... otherwise, countdown to Nov ongoing... really dreading it for a few reasons...

一波又一波。。。

2 weeks came and gone, mum and papa came and gone... 

the day they arrived, met them at auntie's house, had dinner and cake together cos it was also auntie's bdae the next day... helped them unpack and of course, my dear mother decided to bring the whole house and store to us, and the whole house looked like a tornado landed for a few days...

had the friday, mon and tues off... friday, took them to see homeworld, which of course made us all upset... thinking it would be so good if we could actually afford something similar... after that went to victoria's basement, and then back to auntie's house again, hung there for a little while before going to pick pongie up... saturday... pongie went for her ielts course, and we stayed at home till it was time to pick her, drove into the city, had a drive pass pongie's workplace, and the nice apartments and waterfront area, after that went for dinner in this malaysian restaurant near chinatown, yuck the food is sooo bad... thank goodness we went for lindt after... sunday... stayed at home to help mum prepare for dinner as we invited auntie and uncle over... needless to say, we were all quite stressed towards the end of the day, with the cooking, cleaning... monday... pongie's graduation... wore my new red dress, it was really hot that day though, thank goodness the ceremony did not go for that long... got doubly charged for the graduation photos, still waiting for my refund to date... everyone said pongie's graduation much better than mine, they even provided some finger food, champagne and drinks after the ceremony... went to myers after and bought a mixer, a red Sunbeam mixer... learnt to bake pandan cake... have baked 3 pandan cakes to date... still not quite successful yet, main issue is still the mushiness in the middle of the cake... also made curry puffs, needed to be spicier... tuesday... went to seven hills rsl for buffet, finally! according to everyone... it was alright, not as exciting as the first time we went though, the food was not as nice... I think the novelty has pretty much worn off... after the buffet, went over to auntie's house to hang out... 

then it was back to work, karen's finally returned from long service leave, Sarah's found a job at Westmead similar to MRT,  had to do a HV at Blacktown, DOH unit, everything was pretty much yucky in there, except for a huge LCD plasma screen in the lounge area... it's all about priorities I guess... oh and received the p/c letting me know that I did not get the TACP position... which means keep looking Andrea... worried about when Nov comes, when kevin leaves and Kirti comes, and when June approaches, I might not have a job... cross my fingers and toes, hoping that I can find a job before that time comes... submitted my leave application for 3 weeks off during chinese new year... it's been fairly busy atm, last friday was actually pretty shitty, thank goodness I had nice colleagues who helped out... baked a pandan cake for ren's bdae that day, but pretty much brought the whole cake back cos he had 3 other cakes, which was fine with me, cos I got to eat more cake...

saturday... stayed at home and did more baking, went out for dinner with auntie and uncle at Ribs and Rumps... it was expensive... sunday, did more baking again, and went to auntie's house for dinner... was looking up the internet for new shows cos it's pretty boring atm, found these movies which Mike He acted in, one with Ella and the other with Fiona Xie... downloaded the one with Ella, watched clips of the other movie, but comments were that the other movie was not great... I have to say, I could not recognise Mike He now, unsure if it was bcos of the new hairstyle or the fact that he has aged, or that he has put on some weight... pretty sure the last time I watched his show was Huan Huan Ai, and that was ages ago... 

today, sent mum and papa off at the airport, don't feel as sad this time, probably cos they have been visiting quite frequently recently, and I am going back in Jan, and pongie's here, and potentially nainai is coming in Nov... went to see the GP again today, not good news, have to go see another specialist this time, and take iron and Vitamin D supplements, she was actually scaring me when she started talking abt having to do iron infusions...  worried about the specialist review though, apparently I am insulin resistant... which is a risk factor of diabetes :( the issue is most of our diet is made up of mainly carbohydrates, and fats, and of course, sugar, and the fact that I eat little veg and fruits...

STiLL no NiCe New drAMas...

exactly one week from the last post, really happy with the 2 tops I bought on the events online website despite the fact that I had to go pick it up from the depot that day... which brought me a sense of deja vu cos it felt like I was back in occ rehab again :(

decided to take a sick day off today to go for the interview, we'll see what happens, can't recall if they contact the referees after they confirm that you are the preferred candidate or before... need to check that... hopefully it's after cos it would be somewhat complicated to explain if it's otherwise...

bought the BP machine, and have been monitoring for the past month, still on the high side though, can't say I have been overly exercising, but doing alittle more that what I used to... GP says need to cut down on salt and carbohydrates, more protein, fruits and veg... easier said than done... and wants me to take another insulin test and Hb is on the low side... 

workwise... the decision for the time being is that kevin gets to stay with us for now, but rehab will only have a new grad once Nat leaves... and Kara was saying that rehab will be asking kevin to go help once Nat leaves which is today... and it will also mean that we will be seeing MRT pts for longer cos there is not much movement happening down at rehab... and that the plan may change again once the PT manager returns from leave next week... and the issue is that MRT no longer has any funding hence if any of us leaves, there will be no replacement, which brings me to the next small concern that IF I do get the TACP position this time, the team will not be happy... anyway, not very exciting atm anyway, cos the students are here for another 2 weeks, hence Kara and I are pretty free... anyway, watch this space I guess... baked cheesesticks for Nat's baby shower yesterday and of course bought the wrong pastry, the cheesesticks came out pretty hard and disgusting, brought them to work, took one bite and went oh man, definitely not bringing this to the lunch and embarrassing myself... hence I pretty much went empty handed yesterday...

counting down the number of days before mum and papa arrive...

weather wise, this week was like a week out of summer, tuesday was super hot, and there were actually bushfires up the mountains and at richmond... and now back to being cloudy and rainy again for the next few days...

BYE BYe TeAm...

today was definitely a day full of ups and downs, and heard things which are food for thought...

yesterday was just stressing over what cake to buy, and then today heard the news that kevin's off sick, which meant all that stressing over which cake to get was for nothing... and then found out later that he may have fractured his leg which meant that he might be off for weeks... this week when the students started, I actually missed working in a team with just the 3 of us... now that this happened and what I heard from Kara today about the rehab senior PT position, we may never be able to work in a team again, who knows, maybe not even see one another again... 

received the call, finally, I might add, informing me that I have an interview next friday, yay! which means that I have been given a second chance to do better and hopefully get the job... the downside is, should I tell work and take an annual leave day or should I just take a sick day on friday... I think most of the dept knows I am jobseeking, but I don't really want MRT to know of this yet, just in case I did not get the position... 

bought 2 tops online on events website cos it was having a big sale, thought I could just pick it up from the post office, but turns out that it is couriered, which meant that I will have to either be at home when they deliver or go to their depot to pick it up, pain in the ass... 

oh and bumped into dawn a few times today, and got the impression she was not happy that she was not invited to morning tea, which was ridiculous, firstly, it was a last minute thing, and I don't have the time to go around announcing to everyone, and secondly, it's not like she invites me to morning tea everytime she goes either, which would mean I would not be able to get any work done if that was the case... anyway, the less contact we have with one another, the better... definitely personality clashes...

end of the first week for pongie's first week at work... she wakes up earlier than me, uses the bathroom, boils the water, and then my turn, when she leaves, and I get ready for work, empty the bucket of water, and when I arrive home, start preparing dinner, depending on what is for dinner that night, sometimes I could shower first whilst waiting for dinner to be ready, keep the clothes, do my washing, eat dinner, make lunchbox for the next day, pongie comes home, she eats dinner, then we both do our own stuff on the laptop, and then pretty much go to bed at about 2100...

it's been like summer this past week, it's disgusting really... and it's looking like the coming summer will be even hotter, great... election day tomorrow, and papa's birthday...

SUmmEr in WinTER...

today would be one of those days when the bottle of moscato would come in handy...

work has been quite stressful lately actually both physically and especially mentally... one of the new young patients on MRT found out today that he has only weeks to live, and the worse thing was they only recently had a baby, it was really sad today when I was talking to them both and both of them started crying... another of my patient presented really oddly and all the assessments done up to date have indicated nil significant cognitive issues, and so I am running out of ideas at this stage... then another patient whom had the fall when we did the hob transfer previously came back to us, and I was going to reattempt the hob transfer again with kevin today when deanna was like are you sure you should do this again, are there any other alternatives... so in the end, the patient also did not want to do it and I ended up wasting people's time, and now I ended up having to do a HV in tregear, not a suburb I want to be in actually, after the last time I was out there... and today was drilled by the team during case conference about the patients... and Kara told me today that she is now going on this diet  and she can no longer eat chicken schnitzel with me on thursdays... alamak... one of our patients has been singing this seven dwarfs song during therapy, and today, we were trying to get her to sing a different song, and I just said twinkle twinkle little star and she started singing too, and we were like singing along with her, it was actually quite a nice feeling... even though it was physically exhausting...

生日快乐。。。

birthday long weekend... drove down to bowral and berrima on friday, it was cold and windy that day, and of course, my period decided to appear that day as well... visited and walked around the towns of berrima and bowral, the high tea was not nice at all, the only good thing was that we got to sit in front of an actual fireplace... the room we had was really nice though, on the top floor and overlooking the golf course... passed by alot of nice houses on the same street and another hotel called Gibraltar, which looked even nicer... went into one of the cafes for lunch and the schnitzel dish we ordered was not nice at all as well, and ended up eating cup noodles for dinner... buffet breakfast was alot better though, ate till I was so stuffed that I had to cancel the buffet dinner that night, and of course no one was happy abt that... ended up eating my bits and pieces of flourless choc cake for dinner and pongie had Mcdonalds at auntie's... prisy bought me a jewellery organiser, and willie wonka chocolate... watched running man as usual, recently it has been not very funny at all, which concerns me, what will happen if the show gets cancelled??!!

sunday... cleaned before uni gang came, anna cooked spicy pork and beef bulgogi, preferred the spicy pork definitely, karen baked me a cheesecake... the part I do not like, is cleaning up... tried to use the dishwasher that day as well, luckily it was only clean plates, cos we ended up with a puddle of water at the base of the dishwater, and having to manually scoop the water out... not nice :(

birthday monday... kara bought me a bottle of moscato, and ren bought me my fav french vanilla cake... I was very touched :) the sad thing is... pple are especially nicer to you only that day... had lunch out with kara and kevin at red cherry which was nice, and I had a lunch treat... and then had cake for afternoon tea... uni gang sang me happy birthday on sunday, and kara and kevin got one of our pts to sing me one, which was very meaningful, and work pple sang me another one during cake time... and deanna sang me a personal one today :) and mummy and papa sang me one too... and received birthday wishes on facebook... I miss home :(

ChiLLy boTH iN & oUT...

currently watching a singaporean drama called the dream makers, the show's not bad, don't really feel like watching the korean drama, hence stopped it after like the first 3 eps and went over to watching the mediacorp drama...

finally baked the flourless chocolate cake again after so long, baked 2 and only one came out good, and bcos it was the smaller one that came out good, had to get pongie to walk over to coles specially to buy the frosting so it's less ugly looking... the part I really don't like is having to do the washing and cleaning up, especially now the ants are back again... decided to buy a cake from baskin and robbins for my bdae, rather than bake again... less trouble... 

work wise, still busy... don't know what happened to me today, but the interpreter did not turn up as scheduled and I ended up being really pissed all day, and started making sarcastic comments... Kara actually asked me to go home and have some wine to destress... I honestly don't know what is going on, whether it is bcos I am stressing over the pts, or the ants problem at home, or you know who still, or the fact that papa  is planning to bring some relatives whom we don't know over and it just happens to be the time when I was planning to go back home... which means now who knows when I can go back home, and now that pongie found a casual job, she cannot leave... looking forward to the roadtrip on friday... was wanting to have a massage when we are there, but it's too expensive... and also to my bdae weekend... 28 years old... not much happening on the social front... :(

OTOKe...

still no new shows recently, so rewatching old shows, waiting for this new korean show called I hear your voice to finish tonight... 

work wise... so stressed these past 2 weeks becos of one of the challenging patients with locked in syndrome... staying back late... reading up textbooks and journals... looking up assistive technology websites... keep bothering other colleagues... hopefully she will be going down to rehab next week... then it will be less stressful... and if another person asks me or mentions the words switches/buzzers again, I am seriously going to smack them... and the stress is really creating havoc with my period atm... and Ren was like how come you did not want to do a splint for her?? you need to come out of your comfort zone etc... and so in the end, you know who helped me make a cast for the damn buzzer today, which means that I owe both Ren and him a big favour... oh, and that day, I was in the toilet doing a pee, and someone walked right in, and I am pretty sure it was Frances... can you imagine what might happen if it was a guy instead??!!! and I was still having my period, so pretty much everything could be seen...never ever going to use that stupid toilet again!

Finally, 9 years later, I have changed my blog template...

风和日丽。。。

nothing much happening hence why nil new posts...

no new shows, so rewatching old shows, went to watch the movie pacific rim earlier in the am with pongie, I have to say plot wise, not that great but the action effects, is more than enough for me, met my expectations, and it is definitely a movie which you have to watch in the cinema with the big screen and sound system... 

work wise, we have a patient on the program atm who is like 250kg, and she was massive, and the lumps of fat was actually quite horrendous, and the fact that she was leaking I dunno what, was even worse... I was like telling myself I will never be like that and to use her as my motivation for my 'weight-loss' program... otherwise, we have another challenging patient on the program who is similar to a spinal cord injury, and complicated... applied for a position at the new rehab hospital at ryde, but it's been 3 weeks and nil news, so I probably did not get the job... jobs are still pretty scarce atm, especially permanent fulltime jobs... something sickening happened this week as well, a person whom I did not like at work when I first started at Nepean is now back part-time... seriously... the good thing is she is not based in the office, but the bad thing is she works in rehab, which means I have to interact with her... which really increases my motivation to leave at this stage... now that oct is coming closer... that other day, we were seeing a patient together cos Kara was off sick and for some reason we were talking about age and going to the gym, and so finally my old age is revealed and the fact that I am soo a "gym junkie"... I was surprised myself actually when the discussion on age came up so I dunno about other people... all I can say now again is, this is all Renato's fault :( 

the good news though this week is we are getting new registrars, and one of them I actually know from before, and thank goodness... hopefully things will improve... funding for MRT has been approved for another year, hopefully maybe when the new rehab ward opens, I might be able to continue doing MRT there if I am still at Nepean which looking at the way things are going, highly possible...

StiLL WeT...

short post this week... nothing much happening atm with work, still busy, and counting down to oct, when you know who rotates... still frustrating becos of the inappropriate referrals we have been getting... my new pants finally arrived, and it's still not the best fit, would still have to alter them before I wear them, and now 3 of the navy blue shirts have been relegated to the rag pile becos of the holes in them, which means I have to start wearing the teal ones more often, it's really not my colour despite what people say...

had my day off today, sent hyungie in for service, so expensive this time, alamak... poor hyungie is just eating up the kms every day... and it's been raining pretty much the whole week and all of today, so all I did today was stayed indoors and finished watching the HK drama tiger cubs, which was better than I expected, enjoyed the show... ate, slept... pretty much was a sloth the whole day... 

end of financial year is here, which means the dreaded tax time is here again... urghhh... 

nothing exciting coming up in the near future...