LonG, LoNGEr, and loNgEsT...

this week was really stressed for me... becos of human occupations exam yesterday... worth 50%... it was really difficult for me... cos we had to memorise the case studies and be familiar with them... and i could not really concentrate during studying... cos i was hooked onto this really funny hongkong cooking show called Beautiful Cooking... really funny... seeing the actresses cook and some of them are really hilarious, because they never cook before and one even set the wok on fire... and the judges were also really hilarious... anyway... yeah now that human occupations exam is over, next up is the project for the placement... really annoying, becos mine is a literature review of like 20 articles... and i have to print all of them out and send them to nepean hospital... waste my money... i doubt they will even read them...
final exams timetable just came out... shit man... this semester is really bad... the first week is like one exam every day... and i have like 6 papers altogether... why...

nothing much happening... just can't wait to go back and that's like my motivation to quickly study and get over it and look forward to going home... and i have decided to keep my hair long... yes... i have never had long hair in my life so i am going to try keeping it and see how it goes... now my hair is still shoulder length but can tie up already... but it's really bad if i dun tie it up... look so messy and make my neck itchy... let's just wait and see how long i can stand it before my succumb to cutting my hair again... cos pong said i dun look nice with my hair tied up... :(

BaCK tO uNi... :(

THis weekend is a long weekend... bcos apparently tomorrow is a public holiday... Labour Day... and i am working... for once... working is good, bcos i get double rate pay... even though my arms and legs are aching and in pain... been working throughout the weekend... have to earn and save money becos i am planning to take driving lessons after exams and one hour of lesson is like $40??? suck my blood man... and also becos when i go back to singapore... won't be working for like 3 months... so now must earn as much money as i can... hmm... there's alot of new faces in the store now... i guess i am just not used to it... cos it's been so long since we had new pple coming in... and now suddenly so many new faces ard... so like i am considered one of the "older" pple in the store... in terms of the time we worked in the store since it opened...

last friday... invited yochi and amelia over to do baking... they made the cheesesticks while i made the caramel brownie... in my opinion, both were a disaster... firstly, they put too much pepper in the cheesesticks and for some reason, the cheesesticks did not rise... all of them came out flat... dunno what happened also... and then the brownie... after i added and stirred everything and put the tray into the oven... yochi picked up this packet and asked me how come the caramel's still unopened... i did not even realise there was no caramel in the brownie when it was supposed to be caramel brownie... haha... so i had to take the brownie mix out of the oven and pour the caramel on top... and again... for some reason... the brownie came out all mushy and sticky... stuck to the paper cos i could not find grease paper, so i just used some paper thing and sprayed oil on it... obviously it did not work... alamak... and cheesesticks and brownies were supposed to be my specialty... yeah... watched Love Actually as we ate our fruits of labour...

this week... two of my close friends turning 21... yay... so happy 21st Jo and Angie!!! u guys finally joined the "mature adults" club... haha... enjoy urselves... and Jo i hoped u received my letter...

and it's back to uni again... so not looking forward to going back... so many assignments and presentations... and exams... this semester is sooo hard... and they are going to base the honours selection on our results this year... stress ah...

ANNoyiNg...

yesterday went to the city for karaoke with huilin, sally, xueting and a few of sally's other friends... but u now what... they made me wait for them for like 40 mins... standing stupidly outside woolies for so long... i was so pissed... i never ever wait for anybody for so long man... stupid pple... and then when they finally arrived... i was of course pissed already and then we realised that the karaoke place does not open till 1pm... so we had to stand outside and wait for another 15 mins... huhh... annoying...

so the five of us started to sing first cos sally's friends were coming later... and then huilin told me that they were all guys... i was like shit... i dun like singing in front of strangers leh... okay... and then when we all started to put in our songs... one of her friends whipped out these two lists of songs that she wrote down of all the songs that she was planning to sing... haha... funny, cannot blame... she's also a singaporean... kiasuism... i had to leave early cos i had to work last night... but they all stayed till 9pm... can u believe it??? they are also hardcore karaoke fans like me... sing from 1-9pm... i would have stayed if i could...

anyway, before meeting up with them, i went early to buy prisy's present... not really a present... it's like this westfield gift card where i just put in a certain amt of money and she can use the money to buy whatever she wants in westfield... i thought that was a brilliant idea cos i have no idea what to give her so might as well just give her this and she can use it to buy things she like... anyway... happy 21st birthday prisy!!!

ReCoVeREd...

After drinking lots and lots of water... I have finally recovered... thank God... i was so miserable the whole week... kept coughing and dun feel like talking bcos of the sore throat... and also cannot eat alot of my fav foods... anyway...

i am on a one-week break now... which also is not really a break bcos i have tons of stuff to do and human occupations exam next friday... just thinking of all the assignments and presentations that i have is enough to cause me to start panicking... last year this time... still remembered i was at the arthritis camp... i still can remember clearly what happened at the camp... more bad than good actually... maybe cos i am not used to taking care of so many kids at once and they are all so grown-up, not really kids already and they have their own thinking and ways of doing things... and they dun really want to listen to a stranger telling them what to do...

so... what have i been up to... nothing much... prisy got me hooked to another japanese anime show called Full Metal Alchemist... really long show again... but after watching it... it's really a good show... especially the relationship between the two brothers and the stuff that they had to go through... sometimes the show is really sad but it's got substance... not like some anime where you just watch and get nothing out of it... it's abt this two brothers whose mum passed away and they tried to use alchemy to resurrect her... but in alchemy, it is a taboo to use alchemy to resurrect humans so obviously bad things happened to both of them... the older brother lost an arm and leg and the younger brother lost his body and his soul is stuck in an armour... and the whole show is on how they go on a journey to find something called the philosopher's stone in order to restore them back to their original bodies...

that's abt it... and i gave up going to jolin tsai's concert on october 13 here in sydney... really wanted to go initially also because guess who her special guest is.... Jerry Yan!!! sigh... but it's too expensive and i already spent money to buy my airfares back... so decided to save money...

SiCK & FeELinG crAPpy...

poor andrea has been sick since friday... friday was the worst... felt shitty after coming back from uni... and then went to bed early cos i was having fever and my whole body felt so hot and weak... and the sore throat was killing me... drank alot of water too... but nothing seemed to be working... was actually my fault... ate almost the whole packet of cheese doritoes on thurs... and then had to work during the weekend... i almost wanted to stop working halfway on sunday... cos i was coughing and feeling crappy... and now... although the sore throat's not as bad as on friday, but i am having a cold now... i can't breathe...

went to see the doctor today and the whole consultation lasted only five mins... the doctor just asked me what's wrong, looked at my throat and checked my ear and that's it... just told me to go to the pharmacy to get some cough medicine and some throat spray... alamak, that did not help at all and i forgot to ask for some antibiotics... and i had to go all the way to the main campus in the city... waste my time and money... so after seeing the doctor, i decided to visit my favourite bookstores... kinokuniya and borders... sat there the whole afternoon reading... michelle gave me a $20 gift card from borders fro my bdae present, so i thought i would use the money to buy the next book in my in death series... unfortunately, borders did not have the book yet...

today called the hospital where i went for my placement and found out that my supervisor was not working there anymore... shit man... no wonder she did not return my email... cos we still have to submit a project thing to them in october... how...
the week has been crappy so far since friday, nothing's going well... next week is the one week mid-semester break... mixed feelings... the good thing is of course dun have to go uni but also got a pile of assignments and presentations waiting for me on the table... and exam's coming soon...
how to do anything when my nose is blocked and i can't breathe??!!

DAe JaNg-gEum...

got hooked again by a korean series recently... like seriously, these stuff are so addictive and harmful to me... once i started to watch, i can't stop and kept thinking abt it day and night, even in my dreams, i dream abt the show... the name of the show is called Jewel in the Palace (Dae Jang-geum), it is actually based on a true story... abt the first Korean female royal physician... the show is sooo long... like 70 episodes, the story is abt her journey when she was a child till she became the royal physician in the imperial court... we did not even start watching from the beginning, we started in the middle and the funny thing was... u noe how my uncle does not even speak or watch chinese shows rite, he also got hooked onto the show... and last sat night, all of us watched till 3am... how bad is that... this is all my sister's fault... always giving these shows to me...

sigh... and my assignments are all piling up again... health policy essay is due next week and i dun noe how to do the last 2 questions... who can help me... anyway, like in the show... she was actually sent to the palace to be a palace maid since she was 8 and she is really good at cooking... and then alot of things happened... and the show is really sad, bcos her whole life is like this tragedy... everybody ard her is always thinking of ways to plot against her and they are also jealous of her... and then she got exiled out of the palace, and then she learnt medical skills and she also became a really good doctor... anyway, i am just amazed that such a talented person actually existed in history... even though she faced alot of obstacles and believe me... there was like an obstacle in everything she did... but she still persevered and held on to her beliefs...
if u haven't watched it, you must watch it when u have time... it's a really good show... the only thing is it's too long and very slow-moving...

StRiNG oF unForTunAte evENtS...

last week was a sad week for australia... firstly, the world-renowned steve irwin, the crocodile hunter died due to a stingray attack and then on fri... a famous racing legend peter brock died while racing when his car crashed into a tree... and then today, is the september 11... 9/11... a date that almost everybody in the world knows...

it has been five years since the twin towers of the World TRade Centre was destroyed... but i still remembered the first time when i heard the news... was in sec 4 at crescent and it was in the morning, when i walked into the classroom and fran and sherry were like... a plane crashed into the world trade centre??!!... the first thought that came into my mind was the world trade centre, now called something else (i can't remember) in singapore... and then i later realised that they were talking abt the ones in new york... the next few days... all news reports were on the terrorist attacks on the world trade towers and scenes of pple running, screaming, bloodied and of course the most horrifying pictures were of people plunging down from thousands of floors up to escape the burning furnace...
i still remembered feeling really sad and horrified and a kind of surreal feeling that this kind of thing really happened in modern day... cos you only watch this kind of thing in movies... like the movie independence day... but to see and know it's really happening now is kind of scary... and having the feeling of thank god i was not there...

i guess i just want to say that so many things are happening ard us and we are all so engrossed with what's happening to us that we sometimes forget that there is a much bigger thing going on out there in the world and that sometimes... life is unpredictable... we never know what will happen to us tomorrow... treasure everything and everyone ard us cos u never noe when that something or someone might just disappear...

GrOSseD oUt...

these few days, despite a pile of readings waiting for me to go through and assignments deadlines near, i still continued watching korean shows... this time, it's not a series but 2 movies which we bought from the eastwood shop... the first one is called My Girl and I... starring Song Hae Gyo and the guy from My Sassy Girl... the one with the ultra sucker and moronic look... the show was quite cute and touching, but it moved too slow for my liking... and can somebody pls enlighten me why ALL korean movies insist on the female character dying of some sort of fatal disease at the end??? i mean, the plots are all so predictable... both movies were sad endings as you have guessed... I preferred the other movie though... although prisy said that i was just biased towards hyun bin... haha... it's true... the other movie was his first movie called Millionaire's first love... it's quite nice and touching also... and the female lead is so cute... and she's so young... anyway... i definitely recommend both shows... must watch!!! may i just add that his hairstyle in the movie was not as cool as that in kim sam soon... and for once, i would like to see him acting poor...

so happy i have a day off tomorrow... felt like i really needed a break... have been going to uni from mon-fri and then sat and sun working... i had no time for myself, to do stuff that i like...
just came back from dinner with the gang... all of us went except tina and mel... went to this korean bbq place in belfield... abit like seoul garden... but this is of course more authentic korean style... the food was nice, ate till i was so full... although i have learnt my lesson already, i will never eat till i vomit again... and it was raining and so cold today, so i thought it was a good idea that we ate bbq today... the only thing was the cost... very expensive... once in a while is fine, but not good to eat those stuff often... and also another thing was... since coming over here... i have learnt to eat beef and pork, cos i never eat those back in s'pore... and i really love the spicy beef in the city rite... but today, at the korean bbq place, i saw how the raw beef and pork and the blood... i was kind of grossed out actually... i did not even realise the red liquid was blood until they told me... i thought it was just the seasoning or flavour that they added... now i dun noe if i can ever eat beef without thinking of it soaking in blood... yuck...

went to work on wed... as usual... but mon was the first day we changed the registers to the touch screens kind... it's actually faster than the manual ones... cos we dun have to memorise the codes of the fruits and vegs... they have pictures and all u have to do is know whether they are fruit or veg... wed was my first attempt at the registers and so far, there were no drawbacks but we'll see...

A fRiGhT...

after my parents went back on thurs... my life went back to its routine... went to uni on fri for body systems mid semester exam... the questions were quite okay, i actually studied the stuff before, so i guess i got the advantage... but i got the question on ideal gases wrong... my physics seriously suck man...

work... was okay, worked on both sat and sun... however, today when i am almost finishing my shift at ard 9pm... i was cleaning at the registers and i suddenly heard yelling... so i looked up and saw this guy running away and my supervisor and the duty manager was yelling and giving chase... i dun know if he stole stuff or what, and then his companions who were still in the store started yelling bcos the store manager would not let them go... and he was like yelling and banging stuff... and thank god there were the shelvers ard... cos normally it would be mostly females at the checkouts and the supervisors are also females... and then i heard alot of yelling at the entrance... dun even noe what was going on but then, the other staff in the store started to run outside... i was so afraid that there would be a fight or something, or they start whipping out knives or something... really scary... all of us at the checkouts also got a fright man... and especially since tomorrow onwards, the store will be changing the checkouts to the touch-screens one... sigh... the plce where i work is really not safe... this is the second time something similar happened... after that, i quickly signed off and went straight home... dun even want to remain there for another second...

see no evil, say no evil and hear no evil... haha...



Our masks... i looked scary in that mask... and also btw, i did not make it, i borrowed it... haha...

At my 21st Birthday Party...

A LEssoN leArNt...

btw, before i start on my blog... my parents went back yesterday... went to the airport to send them off... i was sad that they are leaving so soon but i managed not to cry... i even got myself a pair of brown leather gloves at one of the duty-free shops... i kept telling myself that i would be able to go back in another 3 months' time...

mon... "ponned" uni to accompany my parents to hornsby westfield... shopping... my normally thrifty mum actually spent so much money on clothes for my sister... she actually bought blouses that costed like $30 each... and after that... went for lunch at the foodcourt, got to eat my fav macdonalds and my pretzels... both of which i haven't eaten for a long time... that's about it for my monday... bought alot of clothes... and i bought another photo album for myself, this time a bigger one bcos my small one is running out...

tues... went to uni for the health policy lecture and to see my area coordinator regarding the documentation exam... i got 'pending' for the exam... alot of my friends failed the paper, even yochi, whose dictionary does not have the word fail... i was so surprised that she failed the exam... and it's really ridculous cos they focused more on our grammar, spelling, general language stuff more... and i got pending not bcos my language was bad, but bcos i wrote down the wrong info and did not identify the 4 correct problem areas for the client... and it's stupid, bcos we had to watch the initial interview video which has really bad sound quality and i could not even hear what the "client" was saying... anyway, after seeing the coordinator... i just have to rewrite the 4 problem areas and she will pass me...
after the lecture, went to the city to meet up with my parents... went to eat at my fav spicy beef place of course... dun think they liked the food though... still preferred chinese food i think... and then after, despite knowing that we would be eating dinner out with auntie and family to celebrate father's day and my papa's bdae... i still decided to go eat at this dessert place called passionflower... actually it was prisy and michelle who recommended that place cos i said i wanted to eat waffles... but when i arrived there, i saw the menu and found this icecream and brownie dessert and i had to have it... so the three of us shared one dessert... really nice but i was so full after eating it and i knew i was in trouble bcos i definitely cannot eat anymore...
of course, later that night, when we met up for dinner at this malaysian-chinese restaurant, i was still so full but i did not want to tell them that we went to eat earlier already... so i had no choice but to try and eat some... the food was horrible, the only nice dish that i liked was the roasted chicken... even the fish was bad...
anyway, NEVER EVER eat so much till u are so full till u can't breathe like i did... bcos after i came home, my stomach was really painful and it felt like the food was all stuck in there and could not digest, i was really miserable... so in the end, i ate Norit and vomited... it was BAD...
never again... i have learnt my lesson... i just couldn't resist when i saw the icecream with brownie thing...

MY 21st paRtY...

Finally!!! after all the preparations, my PARTY's here... haha...
woke up early in the morning... still thinking of words for my charade game... aiyo, think until my brain going to explode... why so hard one???!!! and then ard 12noon, disaster number 1: the electricity suddenly went off, THERE WAS NO ELECTRICITY!!! when my party's about to start at 2pm, how are we going to prepare and cook all the food?!! just my luck... and disaster number 2: the blouse that i was going to wear at the party ripped along the top... ohmigod... shit lah... bad things kept happening and my party's abt to start... so we had to wait for the electricity to come back on then we could start frying the noodles, cooking the curry and baking the cheesesticks and brownie... thankfully, it came back ard 1pm and we started to prepare all the food... thank god michelle's bf came early to help out... thanks alot michelle, toufic and steve, who was the first guest to arrive... he was roped in to bake the cheesesticks and brownie... i did not help much cos i was busy getting ready and then my friends arrived...

amelia and yochi came first, bearing my presents... they all shared and got me the ralph lauren's cool perfume and a beanie... okay, i really appreciate it and not trying to be ungrateful or anything, but they bought the wrong one, i actually wanted the ralph lauren's ralph... oh well... i will think of something... thanks everyone... :)
after that, huilin called and told me that there were no trains coming to pennant hills cos there was track work going on... so both she and mel had to catch the bus... so amelia was nice enough to drive to the pennant hills and epping stations to pick them up... and while on our way out, anna and her son justine, karen and her sister, and tina came... yay!!!
so after picking mel and huilin up, we drove back home and my party's officially started... food was of course served... the cheese sticks were a definite hit with everyone... it's easy to make and delicious... oh did i mention that i purposely told everyone that the dress code was either a skirt or dress and they had to make their own masks?? why?? bcos one of the games in the party was twister!!! haha...
first up, twister... everyone realised the reason behind the dress code when i told them we were playing twister... it was hilarious... everyone's trying to play the game without showing their unmentionables/ "zao gen"... i really sucked at the game... i am so not flexible, i was out of the game within the first five mins... huilin and karen were really good though... all of us were laughing maniacally at their comical poses...

after that, was charade... i think the questions were too easy especially the animals category... they guessed the answers so fast... steve was so funny... i cracked up whenever he's doing the charade... after that, it was dinnertime... there were fried noodles, which turned out to be too little cos not everyone got to eat the noodles, i did not even get to eat it... curry, samosas, spring rolls, salad... everyone gave good comments on the food, thanks to auntie...
bcos prisy had to work that day, we had to wait for her to come back to play the trivia game... so we played the 'handbag' game... where there is a list of items that i would call out and everyone had to dig into their handbags for those items if they had them...

the initial plan was to watch a movie while eating dinner, but we started later than expected so we just skipped the movie and just sat ard and ate... anna's son justine was so cute, he was running ard and playing with toufic and steve... it got to a point when he spitted a mouthful of milk on steve... anna was so mad at him... and i think she did not get to enjoy the party as much bcos justine was throwing tantrums during the party...

finally... prisy's back... trivia time... we were divided into 2 groups and given trivia questions to be completed within a certain time period... the questions were so difficult, but i really have to thank michelle for putting in so much effort into thinking up questions for the game... she borrowed this trivia book from her friend which is really cool... it's got like alot of general knowledge questions and different levels... anyway, the worst one was the one on harry potter... NOBODY in my team watched harry potter except me... so i was the only one left to answer the questions... and i became so frustrated when i couldn't remember the name of the four houses... and no one on my team could help me... and of course the other team won bcos prisy's like the queen of tv and movie trivia, she can actually watch the show and then tell you what other movies that particular actor was in... and of course steve is like the walking encyclopedia...

anyway... it was all really fun and everyone had fun too... finally it was cake time... i did not actually buy a cake, i bought 2 slabs of ice-cream-like dessert instead... everyone also liked it alot and we also had brownies... had alot of fun on that day... once again... i want to thank everyone who came to the party, and pple behind the scenes...

and also piyo, who gave me my first 21st bdae present... received the presents from huimin, fran, jo and sherry, thank you... and well wishes from mel, siti, and zhenzhen... final sentence of this really long post...
i can't believe i am 21 already...

SuNdaY At thE RoCKs...

the third day of my parents' visit... btw, i forgot to add that the biggest present that i received was both my parents came to sydney to visit me...

huilin stayed over at our house after the party, and she helped out with the cleaning up and stuff, thanks... she gave me this cute soft toy and coin purse and korean food... the next day... she had to catch the bus back again bcos the track work's still going on... i felt really bad... after she left, prisy and michelle and my parents and i went to the city...

we parked at central and walked from market city to darling harbour... thank god the weather was not that hot and not raining... took pics along the way and finally stopped at this restaurant along darling harbour for our lunch... the place was obviously expensive... anything in darling harbour is expensive... anyway, the bottom line was i did not like the fish that i ordered... it was too fishy and it was not that nice... i personally think that we should just have gone to my fav spicy beef place at sussex centre... after that, we slowly made our way to The Rocks... it's more like a tourist place where the whole stretch of street was filled with small stalls selling their products... similar to clarke quay... i also have not been there before, and it was like a half an hour walk there...
some stalls that caught my attention was the one where this guy used spray paints to create space arts and it's really nice and looked real too... why are some pple so creative and some pple like me are not?? he's a really talented guy... wished i could have taken pics... another stall was one that sold lamps that were made up of paper which could be folded into each other... sort of like origami... really nice but also very expensive... we actually met karen there... with her sister and her friend... what a coincidence... spent quite awhile there, just browsing the stalls... bought the chocolate fudges that were sold at one of the stalls there...

after that, we began our long walk back to the car... stopped to use the toilet in the four seasons hotel... it's so nice and clean, but not as nice as the hotels in singapore of course... the ones in singapore are so clean and nice that i can even sleep inside... haha... and michelle ate the corn there even though she can't eat bcos of her braces, in the end, the corn got all stuck in her braces... it was disgusting... she still kept going ard and showing off her "corny" smile... haha...
by the time we arrived at pitt street, i was exhausted already, they still wanted to walk some more ard the shopping centres... no more walking please, i will just sit here and wait for u guys...

met up with auntie and uncle at eastwood for dinner at our fav bbq pork stall... bcos the stall was very small and we had so many pple, we had to wait for half an hour... so prisy and i detoured to the dvd rental store in the mall... and came out with two korean movies... the one with hyun bin... Millionaire's first love and the new movie by Song Hae Gyo... came home and watched Fearless and ate waffles with ice cream for dessert... i was so full...

PaReNts' ViSiT daY 1...

this week was quite busy for me... cos my parents came to visit me for a week... on thurs we went to the airport to pick them up... my mum bought back alot of stuff... my calbee chips, sambal chilli, and she even managed to smuggle in chee cheong fun??!!

on fri... i had a tutorial so i brought my parents with me to uni... showed them ard my dilapidated uni campus, of course cannot compare even to the primary schools in singapore now... and i heard that the lidcombe campus where i am at now is going to be moved to the main campus in the city after i have graduated... so the health sciences campus in future would be in the city... and after i finished my tutorial, we went shopping at parramatta... did not buy anything though... just shopped ard and ate that sweet and sour fish again at the foodcourt... and then we went to max brenner to eat... finally!! whoa... ordered brownie, the melting chocolate where they have a special metal spoon where u can also drink from... so sweet... the stuff are too sweet for me... and for me to say that... u noe it's really sweet, i got a headache after eating that... wanted to bring my parents to visit my workplace after, but they called me and asked if i could work and bcos i didn't want to work, i said no and so we did not go there in the end... and at night, after dinner, we watched blade trinity... did not really like the show, super corny... and i was so sleepy that i went to sleep first halfway thru the show... have to prepare for my party the next day... okay, will write a new blog on my party...

ANticiPaTIoN...

this week was supposed to be an exciting week... but nothing really exciting happened yet... uni was as usual boring... handed in our kinesiology proposal after changing the topic three times, cos firstly, we found out that we were not supposed to do anything within the campus, it must be an actual workplace scenario and real workers... so we decided to observe one of the cashiers at woolies where i worked rite... but then apparently, woolies has a policy against pple taking any pics inside the store... so we had to change the task again, and finally decided on doing yochi's aunt lifting a box from the ground...

preparations for the party this sat is still ongoing, the food's almost done, now i have to organise my games and the times... and i had to shift my party earlier cos amelia and karen have to leave early... and another problem came up recently and i did not even realise it at the beginning until prisy reminded me... how am i going to wear a mask with my spectacles??!!... so now, i have to make do with a hairband or something... otherwise i won't be able to see anything... and so "suay" this whole weekend is going to be raining... alamak... how to bring my parents out??!! why can't be sunny like these past few days... it was like summertime these few days... everyone at uni especially the aussies were all sitting on the grass suntanning...

mon received my first birthday present... from dearest piyo... thanks alot... she gave me a packet of green curry and a gold heart-shape necklace... although i have no idea why she thought i liked green curry??!! it's the thought that counts rite... and i felt so bad bcos i did not give her anything on her bdae... went to fran's blog yesterday and read that fran and huimin went ard orchard to find me a present... so touched... thought they forgot all abt me already... thank you guys... maybe when i go back at the end of the year, we can hold another party again... "cross my fingers"
the day i have been waiting for has finally arrived...

this week was quite happening for me...
mon... went to karaoke with amelia and karen, and i also got to eat my fav spicy beef at sussex centre... yum yum... had trouble looking for parking spot cos amelia drove that day... told her not to drive already... but she did not listen to me... so precious time was wasted and we only got to sing at ard 330pm... they did not have some of the songs that i wanted to sing... like elva hsiao's ta he ta, and my lian ai ping lu was so fast, i could not catch up with the song...

okay... something funny but at the same time embarrassing happened on thurs... i was doing my quantitative tutorial in the computer lab rite, and this aussie girl who's also in OT was sitting beside me, and i turned on my lian ai ping lu to listen on my earphones rite, and then i didn't know that it was actually blasting quite loudly thru the speakers on the computer... until my friend who's sitting on the other side of me told me... and before that, i was wondering where that aussie girl who's sitting next to me went rite, and after realising that my chinese song was playing quite loudly thru the speakers, i quickly turned off the music and i felt so paiseh... the girl was sitting at the other side... alamak... they must be wondering why i so inconsiderate and playing chinese song somemore... i really didn't realise...

and went out on fri with huilin to parramatta, apparently, it has the largest westfield in nsw... wow... it was actually newly renovated and got many new shops now... we did not finish walking also... not enough time cos we only arrived there ard 2pm and we ate lunch first... huilin also introduced me to this chinese stall in the food court where you can scoop as much food as want onto ur plate for $8... and she said to try the sweet and sour fish they had... it was really nice, crispy and warm... i must bring my parents there when they come next week... ok... so we shared one plate and heaped one whole pile of food onto it... oh man... it was like rojak... mixture of everything... both of us ate till 'jing jing you wei'...
and then the initial plan was to shop for abit and go and eat max brenner as a dessert rite... yup, they have a max brenner there... my first time eating max brenner was when i went back last year, melissa brought me to esplanade there and eat... i ordered the waffles one and didn't like it and it's also expensive... so my impression of max brenner is not very good... dunno what all the hype abt it is... ok so anyway, in the end, did not get to eat bcos by the time we finished shopping ard, there was not enough time... oh well... next time... bought myself a pair of black trackpants and knee length socks... huilin and i each bought one... to wear it with our boots... haha...

and then after that, took a train back to epping and met up with auntie, uncle, michelle and prisy... we went to this vietnamese-chinese restaurant in chatswood for dinner... the food's not bad and it was really crowded also... but also quite expensive... food's here really expensive... everywhere u go, it's the same... and then after dinner, went to the crepe cafe next door for dessert... the crepe was not what i imagined it to be... remember we used to have a crepe shop at parco bugis downstairs... and dunno what happened they closed down like my cinnamon roll shop... anyway, their crepes were crispy, but the ones here are all soft, and u have to pay extra if u want to add icecream... and they also have like fruits or egg or ham inside... we tried one choc sauce with cream crepe and 2 fruity ones... not that nice though and again expensive...

yep, that's abt it... and preparations for my party are still ongoing, still thinking of words for my charade game... and how to make my mask... we could not find an empty one at parramatta yesterday... oh and this morning michelle went to this LINDT warehouse sale... and ohmigod, she bought so many lindt chocs... i actually bought $40 worth of chocs... i was like saying how if i actually went there today, i would have bought more than this... she was also saying how there were so many pple there and everyone's grabbing chocs like they dun need money and it was packed... did not get to go cos i had to work... hmm... next week promises to be a very happening week... can't wait

HIp HiP HooRaY...

nothing much to update abt the events that happened last week...
some stuff that happened were... the zip on my pencil box came out and now although yochi fixed it back for me, i have to be extra gentle with it in case the whole zip really came out and i cannot fix it back again... this pencil box has special meaning to me bcos mrs yee, my sec 3 chemistry teacher gave it to me... yup, i have been using it ever since i was in jc 1... which i have to mention that yes, for those who knew me, i am still using the red hand-stitched wallet... and it's been like 7 years since i started using it... how durable is it... and although everyone' s been telling me that i should change my wallet already, i will use it till it's really not usable and... recently the label had come off and stuff has been peeling off from the wallet... :)

the most exciting thing to note was that my parents are coming to visit me... yay... hip hip hooray! i am definitely really excited and looking forward to them coming... i really miss home... and my party's preparation are going well... planned the food, games and all the other stuff... hope that day would be nice weather and everything goes well and smoothly... the theme of the party is to create their own masks... so all my guests have to make their own mask and wear them to the party... haha... and the most creative mask would receive a mystery prize, which i have not decided what yet... was not going to buy a cake cos i dun really like cakes, i was thinking of baking brownies and icecream instead but auntie was like just get a small one cos what's a birthday without a cake?? and i was like oh man... alright i will get a small one...

work area... nothing much to report on... same stuff happening... except now i think they are hiring more checkout operators cos i think we are really short of staff and supervisors... and also more shelvers...

yeah, i guess that's abt the excitement last week... have to think abt what i am going to do with my parents when they are here... there's only a limited number of places that i can bring them... oh well... we'll see when the time comes... oh and btw... it hailed today at lidcombe today... it was not as big as last year's but it also happened when i was abt to leave school...

PLeAsaNt sUrpRisES...

worked both days during the weekend... but on sun morning we wokeup at 7am to play badminton at this sports court near thornleigh that michelle found and she booked us in for one hour... so we had to wake up at 7am on a sunday morning to play badminton with her colleague, steve... i dun mind playing badminton, but waking up at 7am in the morning and especially it's a sunday and i had to work later in the afternoon till 10pm... that was definitely not enjoyable...

as expected, i was so sleepy already when i started work... kept yawning nonstop...
however, the good thing was, remember the evil supervisor which i used to curse in my blog (yep, i was reading thru my blog to remind myself of some of the things that i did last year at this time, and i read what i wrote on her... it's really weird now reading all that, cos now the evil supervisor has like a 350 degrees change in her attitude... she's really nice now, although she still bitches sometimes, but as long as it's not me, it's fine, i just listen and agree to whatever she says) anyway, she let me go off early yesterday, was supposed to finish at 10pm, which is the closing time of the supermarket on sundays, but bcos yesterday we had too many pple closing, so she asked me if i wanted to go off early... of course i want... yep and it was so boring yesterday during work cos there were too many of us working... so we were all just standing there, bcos the registers have all been cleaned, stock were put back, and mats were done... so the extent of the niceness of the evil supervisor was that even when some of the other cashiers were chatting and fooling around, she did not even say a thing... i wonder what caused her attitude to change so drastically?? hmm...

oh and last night finished handmaking my party invitations and gave them out today... can't wait for my birthday party, i wish my family and friends could come and celebrate with me... and also gave kathryn's birthday present... was actually debating whether to give the present to her bcos like i only got to know her during clinicals and we were not even close... anyway... i decided what the heck, just give it to her and it's up to her what she does with it... and she seemed quite surprised that i remembered her birthday... in conclusion... i was glad that i gave the necklace to her...

oh btw, my sister reminded me that it's National Day on wed... Happy National Day!!!

COld, DreaRy & frEEzing...

second week of semester 2... back to uni proper... the same old routine... lectures, assignments, tutorials and exams... the first half of the year seemed to fly past in a blur...

this semester no off days for me... got uni from mon-fri and the subjects that we have to study are all so dry... and last year after the first semster of sociology, i thought i never have to study it again... and of all the subjects... this semster we have to study something called health policy and service delivery... and the first lecture this week... the lecturer literally talked nonstop for an hour... i was sleeping already after the first ten minutes... last year's sociology was a nightmare and i dread this semester... and also we have this physic-biomechanical subject called kinesiology... and quantitative analysis crap... i think they purposely put all the sucky subjects together to torture me... and on top of all these horrible subjects... we have a project and a portfolio to do for the placement that we did during the midsemester break...

and today was one of the worst days of winter... it was raining so heavily the whole day... so wished that i was staying at home feeling warm and dry instead of shivering and attending lectures till 4pm...

one good thing to look forward to is... i am planning to have a 21st birthday party at home... actually not really a party, more like a gathering, but i will be preparing food and games to play... i thought since you can only be 21 years once in ur life... might as well celebrate it cos i might not be able to have a party again... my initial plan was to hold it in macdonalds... haha... but i think we are all over the minimum age group... the only sad thing is... i won't get to celebrate this important event with my family and close friends beside me...

2006 WFOT Congress...

updates updates... hmmm... since the last day of clinicals last fri, i was working on sat and went to play badminton with michelle and her colleague... and then she came back and had an urge to do baking again... some strawberry pastry thing... but this time i was really not in the mood to bake so she got her bf and her colleague to help out... and my uncle had guests from singapore during the wkend so the house was busier than usual...

and as u noe... this week is the first week of uni but i still have not gone to uni till now... because of the WFOT congress, all OT lectures are starting only in wk 2, which meant that this week only have like one lecture a day so i dun want to travel all the way to uni just for one hour of lecture... so i pon uni for three days already... how bad am i... and apparently today's the last day to buy the manuals... which meant that i have to get the manuals directly from the individual schools... 'mah fun' man...

okay yesterday went to the congress finally... when i arrived, it was crowded with ang mohs... which showed that OT is still very much a westernized profession... so i registered and went to the opening ceremony... they had like this aborigine man blowing this long wooden pipe thing that curved at the end... dunno what is it called... and three girls playing violins... quite cool... and then i just went to talks after talks... three of my lecturers at uni presented their research papers that day... topics presented yesterday included things like dementia, cognition, young adults with motor disabilities, information processing in young preschoolers, evidence-based practice... quite interesting but i was quite tired becos i slept late the previous night so i dozed off during the presentation of my ORL lecturer's paper on parkinsons disease... haha... and they had many booths in the exhibition hall on OT related stuff, like the australian unis offering OT, different companies which supply equipment, the publishers of OT textbks... all in all... i am glad that i got to attend the congress, although i still thought the price is damn expensive for one day... and i have never been inside the sydney convention centre before till yesterday... and i also took back many brochures, free stuff like the pens, mousepads, measuring pads, calendars... my s'porean kiasuism trait was revealed... haha...

okay... i am hooked again on ANOTHER korean show!!! it's all prisy's fault... asked me to watch the show bcos the subtitles were in chinese and it flashed really fast... so she could not read it... wanted me to watch and translate for her... otherwise she has to pause after every sentence and slowly read the chinese... and now i got hooked to the show... but let me warn those who has not watched it yet... it's a sad show but it's a happy ending... although i thought they should not end the show that way... abit corny... and i still think kim sam soon is still nicer... but i would still recommend it to those who have not watched it yet... and the guy is not as cute as hyun bin... ahhhh!!! and also the theme song, which is in english... is really nice... but the lead actress is really cute... and the scriptwriters who wrote this show made the lead actor say such mushy stuff that i got goosebumps while watching and he cried all the time and the show is quite draggy and spans a few years...
okay... u guys must be dying to know what show i am talking abt rite... let's now reveal the show name... drums and gongs pls....
the show' name is...

Save the last dance for me...

DaY 10 oF cLiNiCaLs... YAY!!

Lalala... today was the last day of my early mornings torture... although i have to say that i quite enjoyed this placement... i had a nice supervisor... can u believe that she's only like 2 years older than me??... anyway... since this was the last day, me and the other student decided to give them a card and bought chocolates for them...

this morning... went up to the ward again to do a shower assessment with this elderly male patient... the ward was still under quarantined... so we had to gown up and wear gloves... and whenever we see another patient even if it's within the same room... we had to change into a new gown and gloves... and according to my supervisor... those were not cheap at all... one box of gowns cost like $200... wow...
so after helping the patient undress and sit on the shower chair... my supervisor suddenly turned to me and said, do u want to do this?... i was like what???!! how come never tell me beforehand? so that i can be mentally prepared... but of course i said yes... so... i was standing there watching him wash himself... luckily he did not require much help... only with his back and legs... still not quite comfortable with watching and helping someone shower, and a male patient... and the patient was taking such a long time shaving... till his whole jaw was red and bleeding... my supervisor was like be careful... but he still kept on going... ??!!
so after the shower assessment... i had to dry him and help put his pants on for him... i think with practice and more time... i will become more comfortable with this...
after that... we went to complete my clinical evaluation form... well... i passed my placement...

and after that... we had a talk in the stroke unit and we were also provided with free lunch... upon arrival... found out that the free lunch was vegetarian sandwiches... yuck... no choice but to take one and eat... otherwise paiseh... and my supervisor had to leave even before the talk started... so i was left there listening to the talk on diseases of the muscles... i think it was supposed to be useful... but it was so seriously boring and i dun even understand most of what the speaker was saying also... i almost dozed off... the talk was so long... in the end... i was so miserable and tired already... hungry and sleepy... and there was not much to do in the ward...

so in the end... i was asked to do more orientation charts for the other OT who needed some for their confused patients... and then went back to the ward, wanting to conduct the cognitive test on this patient but she was fast asleep... so my supervisor said try waking her up and see how... in the end... although she was really talkative but still very confused... it was obvious that she was concentrating on the questions that i was asking her... so we had to stop the test halfway... alamak... and then we had to ask ard to see if the other OTs need help with their patients...
finally... we got to do an initial interview on this elderly male patient who actually was ready to be discharged... so it was quite an easy interview... we finished the interview within 10 min... the other OT was so impressed by our efficiency... actually my supervisor's efficiency cos she did the interview... i was just an observer... after that... nothing to do already so i was sitting in her office reading the upper limb treatment tools when kathryn came in and said her supervisor let her off early... so my supervisor also said i could go early... when i was about to go... like it was the last day already... but i really could not think of anything more to say besides thank you... and afterwards... i felt like i should have said something more rather than just thank you... after all... she really taught me lots of stuff and really nice to me also...

oh and today... after the shower assessment and after doing the documentation... there was nothing much for me to do right... so i was just standing there when my supervisor started talking to another OT and the SP there saying that she was dumped recently and she was feeling really depressed... and then they started talking about their past experiences with failed relationships and abt their ex... some of their stories were really funny but i was like hmm... maybe i should not be listening to this cos i dun noe head or tail right and would seem as if i was eavesdropping... but then again... if i leave... where should i go and what should i do... so in the end... i just stood there listening to them comforting my supervisor abt her break-up and stuff... i felt really 'extra'... but she also never tell me to leave or go somewhere else and they were talking quite loudly too... so i was pretty sure that the whole ward now knows that my supervisor got dumped...

SecOnD Last DaY...

yay... it's the second last day of clinicals... dun have to wake up so early every day and freezing cold anymore... today on the way back from kingswood... okay, i always sleep on the way home cos the journey's quite far right... and today i actually almost missed my stop at strathfield... it's never happened to me before... i just suddenly opened my eyes, and still sitting there blur blur for like 5 sec... and then i was trying to look around for the name of the station... and when i realised that i was already at strathfield and the door's was about to close... i shot up from my seat and ran to the exit... whoa 'heng' man otherwise i would have to backtrack... and miss my express train...

today was quite interesting... actually spent less time in the student's room today... in the morning... went back to the wards to check up on the patients... our ward's still being quarantined... and more pple were apparently getting the virus... we had to gown up and wear gloves whenever we were going to see the patients and sterilize our hands... and then after... i was told to observe in on one of the outpatients wheelchair fitting clinics... where the person comes in to be seen by an external OT who specializes in wheelchair fittings... the lady today was already in a wheelchair... a pink one i might add... but her current one was getting unsuitable for her so she had to get another which would better suit her needs... and today was the first day i saw an actual electric hoist in action... like we actually did it once last year during human occupations... but it was really brief and i dun think we got to try it... anyway... yeah... it was really cool... we also did some turning in bed with the patient... and i learnt that there were again many factors to consider... like her current condition, pressure sores, body alignment, whether she's comfortable in that wheelchair cos she would be permanently in it unless she's showering or sleeping... the OT who came in for the wheelchair fitting was really good at what she does... i hope that i can be like her... we also took the patient for a little trip around the hospital to trial her wheelchair...

after that... i was so starving cos it took about two and a half hours just to do one wheelchair fitting... after that... went back up to the wards to visit our patients again... just observed my supervisor assessing one of the patient's upper limb functional abilities... after that, basically nothing much just sat in the office looking through some of the product catalogues... and some outpatient files... and u noe what... my supervisor actually said something that i thought was one of the highest compliments that anyone could give me... she said i had a good memory bcos i could remember the patients' names and that's why i would be a good OT in future!! thanks! and then bcos tomorrow's the last day of clinicals, i hand-made two cards, one to my supervisor and the other to the OT dept... also bought them expensive chocolates... as a bribe maybe??!! haha...

QuAraNtineD...

Day 8 of clinicals...
our ward now has become quarantined... they were not accepting any new patients and nobody were allowed into the ward except absolutely necessary, all the doctors and nurses were all wearing the blue gowns, gloves and masks... we even had to sterilize our hands before going into the ward...
so we had to go up to the other ward to see if the other OTs had other patients which we could see... did another shower assessment with this elderly lady... she was the very confused one which we interviewed the day before... when we went to see her this morning... she told us that she finally realised that she was in hospital... despite us telling her many times... anyway, she really needed help showering... and she was splashing water all over the place, nearly wetting us both in the process... my supervisor quickly went to get the disposable aprons for us to wear... after doing all these showers... i dun noe if i can do it myself when the time comes... and sometimes it can be quite yucky... like if the patients have incontinence pads on and u have to remove them... or if they can't wash or dry themselves properly, u have to help them, sometimes, the bottom areas... oh man... oh well, i will deal with it when the time comes... hopefully not too soon...

after that, we had to go attend a case conference at the stroke unit... apparently it's still on despite the quarantine... it was really interesting though... we had the doctors, the PT, OT (my supervisor), SP, social worker, the head nurse and the head neurologist of the stroke unit present... each doctor would then present their cases on each patient, and the allied health would also provide their inputs... and they would also put up each patient's CT scans and discuss about it... I have absolutely no idea what they were talking about most of time, only knowing that they were scans of the brain... haha... my supervisor later told me that sometimes we were also expected to know how to interpret the scans... alamak...

after that, nothing exciting, cos we could not go into the ward, and there were no other patients in other wards that we could see... so i was once again stuck in the student's room reading... and then apparently we had another meeting... with the other OTs working in the acute setting... basically they were discussing house-keeping stuff and we had to read a journal article and talk about the article... and apparently my supervisor will no longer be working in the stroke unit after next week, she will be going to outpatients... anyway, they started exchanging stories about their patients... some were quite amusing too... haha...

COunTdOwN...

Day 6 of clinicals...
we had no new patients in our ward... so it was really boring that day... stayed in the student's room and read up on stuff on stroke... sian man... dozed off a few times also... completed my assignments... and in the afternoon... only did one initial interview with this elderly lady who was really engaging, talked alot but she was also really confused... she did not know that she was in the hospital and kept repeating herself...
that's about it for that day... not very exciting... oh and received my exam results... did not bad... considering that i was sick during stuvac and during the exams... we actually got high distinction for the groupwork... i guess that's the good thing abt groupwork... haha...

Day 7 of clinicals...
Did a shower assessment with the same lady that we saw yesterday... She initially refused to shower but later reluctantly agreed... she talked alot during the shower, but she still required assistance with her showering and drying... after that, we had to do more documentation (what else is new??) like seriously... we have so much stuff to write that it can actually take at least half an hour to report on a shower assessment... and the other staff in the hospital also dun really read everything, they only read the summary, according to my supervisor... it's more for legal reasons...
after that, we were informed that the stroke unit had a gastro virus breakout... so they prohibited all allied health pple from entering the ward... i was like great... what are we going to do now?? was supposed to do a kitchen assessment with a lady in the ward... but it was cancelled due to the virus infection...

but later in the afternoon... we went on a home visit to bring a sling to the patient's house...this home visit was really short compared to the one i went last week... we were like in and out of the house within 15 min... bcos apparently we brought the wrong sling... i actually got to read the patient's file before we went there... but when i reached their home... the patient was actually in a worse condition than i thought... she was literally strapped to her seat, and she could not talk or do anything by herself... both her parents had to do everything for her... and she's been like that since she was young... really sad... cannot imagine what would happen if both her parents passed away one day... what's going to happen to her... dun even know if she can understand what anyone's saying...

after the home visit... we went back to the hospital and made two orientation charts for two really confused patients of ours... basically we just included information like the name of the hospital, the date, month and year... and we pasted it on the wall beside their beds... so that they would be more orientated... after that... did another initial interview with this elderly male patient... tested his coordination skills and functional grip strength... and then went to see another male patient who apparently had another stroke recently and his condition deteriorated rapidly... it was really sad... he could not turn his head to the left side and he could not write... his left side was totally non-functional...

GeT wEll sOOn...

this weekend thankfully i am not working cos i took leave for the whole 2 weeks for clinicals... but even though i told them i was unavailable, they still called my handphone during the week and auntie told me they also called home... oh well... it's not that i am deliberately not wanting to work, it's bcos i am on clinicals... dunno if they might get upset at me... and then on fri, when i came home... auntie told us that nainai has a high fever and they suspect it's dengue fever... called home and talked to her and sounded unwell... high fever and her whole body like very weak... and then yesterday, she was hospitalised... sigh... all of us are really worried abt her... dunno why suddenly got dengue fever... is it bcos the weather's very hot now in s'pore or what... really hope that she will get well soon... she hates the hospital... i can't even take care of her now that she's old... when she's the one who took care of my sis and me when we were young cos both my parents are working... whenever i think of that, i feel like crying... why it has to be nainai... she's had a really hard life, and even now when she's old... she has to suffer...

Day 5 OF CLinicaLs Cont'...

alamak... realised that it should be day 5 of clinicals... and i forgot about the rest of the afternoon after lunch... yeah so after lunch... i was finally able to do an initial interview on my own while my supervisor observed... the patient was really cooperative thank God... so i thought i went okay... except i couldn't think of what to say to end the interview, so i was like uhhh... and then my supervisor quickly stepped in to help me... anyway, yeah that was it... need more practice... and then after that, we had no patients to see already so we went back upstairs to complete the halfway evaluation forms for my placement... both my supervisor and I each had to complete one copy each... yeah nothing much happened... except that time passed really quickly... i can't believe it's already friday and i only have one more week to go... also glad that the weekend is here... dun have to wake up early tomorrow and on sunday... i can't help but think abt next year when we have clinicals for the whole semester... ohmigod... they better send me to a nearer location otherwise i am gonna kill them...
up till now though... i am glad that i came to nepean hospital... the whole environment is really nice and the people there are really nice and friendly too...

Day 4 OF cLiniCALS...

Began the last day of the first half of the clinical placement with crappy clients... the first lady was too upset to talk to us... she started to cry when we started asking her questions, so all we could do was try to comfort her and go to plan B... which was another elderly male patient, who saw us coming and told us outright that he does not want to be interviewed, that he had enough interviews already... we were like oookay... so we left him alone and went to look for a plan C... fortunately this other OT was going to do a home visit today, and he said we could follow along... yay... my first home visit since i started...

we brought the elderly lady along with us and drove up to her home in the retirement village... it's quite a long drive up about 50min... and along the way... i saw horses, cows, lambs and sheeps... and vegetable farms... how cool is that??!! it was really nice drive and it was really cloudy today too... drizzling abit... after the home visit today... i realised many things... one, being old sucks... especially if u have illnesses or diseases... and also if u are living by yourself... it was obvious that the lady really was hoping to be able to go home but after we have been to her home and watched how she carried out her daily tasks like moving ard her home, going to the toilet, preparing a cup of tea... it was clear that she was not safe to be living by herself at this point... which the OT explained to her too... and it was just really sad... bcos it was obvious that she was trying really hard to show us that she could cope by herself... but she even have difficulties going into her house bcos of the ledge of her front door... and bcos she has an amputation and is currently in a wheelchair... and her home was just too small for the wheelchair... and doing a home visit was not as easy as i thought... there are many things to consider... the person, the environment and the supports available to the person... like today i was observing the OT discussing with the lady and her daughter about the barriers that were in her home and the reasons why they thought she would not be able to live by herself at home... it really opened my eyes to what OTs do on a home visit... we have to consider stuff like how the patient is going to get from one place to another, how she is going to get into her home, any steps, how is she going to move ard her home, how is she going to the toilet, prepare her own meals and stuff... and then from there, think of solutions to make their home environment safer for them... like building ramps, movinig the furniture ard so that she has space to move ard... installing rails in the shower...

and then also found out today that we only will learn home modifications once in the entire 4 year course, like there would not be any more subjects on home mods... i was like shit... are u serious?? we did home mods in first year and they expect us to remember after we graduate? and last year i was not the one doing the home mods at all... i have no idea how to draw the diagrams and stuff... and my supervisor was like saying that's what the clinical placements are for... oh man... i cannot even draw straight lines...

and these past few days, i have been having lunch with my new found friend Kat... it's just weird like i realised that i have never sat down and eat lunch or spoke more than hi bye with any aussie pple since i came here... she's like the first aussie person whom i have eaten lunch with and we talked abt stuff... although sometimes i couldn't understand what she said but she also admitted that sometimes she also dun understand what i was saying... but it's fine cos we got along quite well... my only concern is if we would still be on such good terms once we are back in uni... like u noe how some pple act differently when they are in different environments and she also has her own friends whom she has known for a year already at uni... or if we would just be hi bye friends when we go back to uni... sometimes i wonder why pple are so complicated... it gets harder when we grow older, does it not??

DAy 4 oF cLiNicALs...

Almost missed the train this morning… alamak if i missed this train... i will be late for clinicals...

In the morning, followed Rebekah to do an initial interview with this elderly lady who’s really alert and she could understand us and who could also joke with us… a really nice old lady… after that, there were more documentation to do mainly completing the initial forms and progress notes… like seriously, I was telling prisy earlier that in a day, we only see 3 patients at the most and the rest of time was spent looking for the patient’s files and writing notes… this is definitely not efficient… I mean, the patients are constantly piling up but here we are, as OTs, being stuck writing out all the documents and stuff… wasting time… might as well spend more time with the patient… and then after that, we were called to do a shower Ax on this elderly male patient… I dunno abt you, but I personally have never seen a guy’s penis up close and personal before… only on pictures in anatomy TBs and the atlas… so today was quite an uncomfortable time for me… like I think my supervisor’s actually trying to shield me from him bcos she stood in front of me and pulled the curtains but I would see it eventually anyway, if u noe what I mean… so anyway, it was not a comfortable experience for me… at least I didn’t have to help wash him or something… but he did asked me to help him put on his socks… I have no idea why… like he wanted me to do it, even when my supervisor said she would help him put it on… abit creepy there…

So after that, more documentation stuff… and then it was morning tea… after morning tea, the OT dept had a dept meeting which we attended also… so us students just sat there and listen to them talk about some housekeeping stuff… one interesting thing that they were discussing abt was whether they should continue with making attendance at case presentations compulsory, which was like every fortnight, one of them has to do a presentation on a certain illness/ disability, which I thought was interesting… I mean, as OTs, we cannot just focus on the clinical area that we are working on currently, it is always good to learn more abt other clinical areas, bcos who knows in future you might need the info… so anyway, today’s presentation was on dementia… quite interesting as the OT presented it was well-prepared and I thought she presented it really well, and she also all these cognitive tests that she found were useful for screening pple with dementia…

and then after the meeting, we went back down to the ward again... did a mock initial interview with Rebekah to practise... tomorrow i will be doing one by myself... i kept wanting to laugh during the mock interview... dunno what to ask also... anyway, then after that, followed this other OT Melanie who's got this Polish client and she got an interpreter to come in to translate... i got to sit in and observe her doing a cognitive screen thru the translator... really interesting... and the patient was in a good mood today, not like the last time i saw him... and then after the interview, Rebekah suddenly dunno disappear to where and i waited for her for like half an hour... feeling so extra at the ward... alamak... and the remainder of the afternoon was spent reading up more case files and walking ard the hospital... did not do much after... hope i will do well for my initial interview tomorrow...

Day 3 OF CliNiCaLs...

Day 3...
In the morning, bcos my supervisor had to attend a conference so she arranged me to follow another OT Melanie who works in rehab ward... before we went down to the ward, she showed me a home modification which she did for this patient who is an amputee... thinking of the home modifications and the drawings that OTs have to do make me dread being one... cos my art is like beyond fail... i simply cannot draw and visualize stuff... how... i can't even draw straight lines... anyway, out of the 4 of us at placement till now... i am the only one who still has not been on a home visit... the rest all have gone at least once... i would like to go on one home visit to see what we actually do... we'll see...

and then after that, we went down to the rehab ward to do another shower assessment for this elderly lady... and again all i did was stand there and watch her shower... i think the more you do it, the more immune you get when u are watching someone showering... seeing them makes me dread getting old... u start having illnesses, pains and ur body starts to give out on you, even ur physical appearance declines, body parts start to droop and stuff... and the lady could not wash her bottom so melanie had to wash for her... abit confronting... and after that, she was like telling me like during the assessment, it is quite difficult to remember everything u saw, so what she does is have a mental picture of the human body divided into face, neck, chest, trunk, genital areas, UL and upper and lower parts of LL... and while u watch them showering, note down mentally which parts they wash and which parts they didn't...

after morning tea, i followed another OT Ruth... we went to the cardiology ward first... and again, did another shower Ax with an elderly lady... her right UL was totally flaccid and her UL and LL were swollen badly... and she required assistance with her transfers and mobility... the thing was Ruth... i found out that she's actually Irish... i mean, how cool is that? i dun even noe any Irish till her... and u noe how pple from Ireland speak as if they are singing... really cool... i actually get to meet alot of pple from different countries here... and after that, more documentation to be done, and i got to fill in initial interview forms again... i think i would have to do an initial interview soon by myself... dun noe if i can do it... what if the pt's not cooperative? and also sometimes i can't understand what the patient's saying... cos they are like mumbling to themselves...
after lunch, followed Ruth again to the respiratory ward... and she interviewed this male patient whose both feet were swollen and i think he has ulcers on his feet too... and there was this other case where the file has pictures of the patient's feet rotting and turning black and red... urgh... gross... that's why i am never going to be able to do podiatry... anyway, the initial interview took an hour... oh man... like she was really detailed whereas in the stroke ward, the initial interview at the most only takes 15mins... i was trying my best to understand what the patient was saying and i almost dozed off halfway... got released half an hour early today though... becos our tutorial on confidentiality and professional behaviour ended early... and I still have not got a topic for the project yet... how...

Day 2 OF cLiniCALs...

Day 2 of clinicals...
In the morning, did a shower assessment on this elderly assessment... it was quite uncomfortable for me and i think the lady also felt uncomfortable cos she's like showering while the two of us just stood there watching her shower... i cannot imagine how it would be if it's a male patient... peeping tom?? peeping andrea??? just weird... she managed quite well on her own and it was later found out that she was discharged just one hour after we did the shower with her... which according to my supervisor... is the aim of the acute stroke unit... discharge asap... which meant that we only get to spend little time with the patient, just enough to do an initial interview, review their ROM and strength briefly and that's it... we'll just refer them to some other depts... eith rehab or community OTs...

and my supervisor went thru the learning contract with me and told me that things are not as rosy in the real world as described in the lectures... where we learnt that we must spend time to get to know our patients... client-centredness... all the skills that we were taught like assessing ROM, manual muscle testing, PNF and NDT techniques... i was told today that we would rarely use them in real clinical practice...

anyway, i got to fill out some referral forms, initial interview forms and progress notes... and my supervisor actually filed what i wrote into the patient's file where everyone in the hospital can read and it would be like there forever... wow... it felt so real... like i was an OT already... my supervisor's also really nice and i found out that she's only like 2 years older than me... most of the OTs there are quite young also... in the afternoon... observed Rebekah my supervisor do an initial interview with an elderly man... it was quite funny cos we went in without looking thru his case file first, which we would normally do b4 going in to look at the patient... so i didn't know what was wrong with him, etc... and then the rest of the afternoon was spent reading thru more case files... so i was just sitting there reading and trying not to doze off again... and the weather these days are so nice... it's like clear skies outside and sunny but windy also... wanted to go outside instead of being stuck reading the files... a good thing that happened today was i made a new friend, Catherine... she's also one of the 4 of us at nepean hospital... she seemed like a nice person... but we'll see... like i recognize her face at uni but never really get to speak with her... we actually clicked off quite well today... :)

DaY 1 oF cLiniCALs...

okay guys it's confirmed!! I AM attending the congress on TUesday, 25th july... decided to fork out the really expensive price to attend the congress, considering that this might be my only opportunity to attend it since it's held at where I am now...

Day 1 of clinicals...
nothing very happening... woke up early in the morning at 4am to watch the world cup finals... in the end, bcos the game went into penalty shootouts, I missed the ending cos i had to leave the house to catch the train... the journey to kingswood was horrible, freezing and i was so urgent... there were no toilets nearby so i had to endure like 45mins till i got to the station... normally, i dun even want to use the toilets in the station, but today really cannot 'dahan' already... my bladder's about to burst man... :(

the first session was an orientation ard the hospital where the supervisor brought us ard the hospital showing us where all the different departments and wards are... and after that, more talking abt the policies and procedures of the hospital... blah blah blah...
then after that, the 4 of us split up and followed our respective assigned supervisors... my supervisor was called Rebekah and she looks after the acute stroke ward... first, she brought me to the ward, and showed me ard again... quite a small ward, and she explained to me that bcos it's an acute stroke setting, we dun get to spend more time with the patients except to do an initial interview, maybe some reviews regarding their ROM, muscle strength, cognitive and perceptive abilities... we only saw 2 patients today... the first lady was quite alert and knew what was going on ard her... my supervisor asked her some questions, like do u know where u are now, asked her to cross out Es from lines of alphabets, and got her to undo her buttons...

our second patient was also an elderly lady, she was also quite lucid, but she spoke really basic english and her daughter had to translate for us... her only deficit was her weak left upper limb, but i thought we actually listened to her stories more than we did therapy with her... that seemed to occur often when we are dealing with the elderly... i like listening to their stories... like last time in njc, when we had to do community service at this nursing home, and the elderly there always got some stories to tell... even though sometimes i have no idea what they were talking abt since they were in dialects and i just nod my head... haha...

my supervisor was quite unprepared though cos she also just came back from holidays and she did not expect such a heavy workload... so when she had to do settle some stuff, she would dig out some stroke stuff and ask me to read... not that i am complaining, but i was really sleepy cos i woke up so early today... and i dun think the stuff i was reading actually went into my head... sigh... and... i actually dozed off while reading... luckily nobody walked past... and bcos this year's placement was supposed to be a 3 weeks placement, but the school shortened it into a 2week one, we had to do a project after the placement... and we have to come up with the topic ourselves... thinking abt the project is giving me a headache... when i get home, the only thing i wanna do is watch my kim sam soon... :(

My shIny aNd NeW laPtOp...

okay, i am actually using my brand new laptop to type this blog... i am so happy... it finally came on friday and it's so shiny and it even smells new... wide screens and nice typing keys... everything is so nice, abit scared to use it cos it's so fragile... haha ... this could be one of the most exciting thing that happened during the two week holiday...

went with prisy to strathfield with her friends, actually wanted to eat at ceci... but it was so crowded when we got there, no thanks to michelle who wanted to detour to rhodes shopping centre on the way to strathfield... i was told that the chinese grocery store at rhodes shopping centre actually sold kaya spread, so i went in there to find, wanted to buy one bottle to try, but i couldn't find it in the end... miss my kaya spread... okay, so instead of eating at strathfield, we went to eat at this other korean place, where most of their dishes were soup-based... ordered this beef soup and pork rib soup with rice... didn't really like the food though... after that, we went home to make cinnamon rolls... HUIMIN!!! my cinnamon roll fanatic partner... i found this recipe online and decided to make it... turned out okay, not as nice as the ones i ate in singapore before they closed down... the dough tasted funny and the cinnamon were melting and leaking out of the dough... maybe next time i will find another recipe and we can make it together k... :)
ate till i was so full yesterday, with all the cinnamon rolls in my stomach... and we also made cookies... aren't we healthy??!!

tomorrow is the world cup final already... so fast... Italy vs France... my bet is on France... haha... wanted Germany to win... oh well... definitely staying up to watch even though the next day is my clinical first day... which btw, i am really dreading... dun want to go, juz want to stay at home and rot and bum around... what if the supervisor asked me something and i dun now anything how? year 2 already and still dun noe anything... what have i been doing in uni??

and then today, went to work in the morning, and when i came home, michelle wanted to make her custard puffs... so in the end we made her custard puffs, cheese pastries AND brownies... i am getting fatter every day... how to lose weight like that??? also got prisy to trim my hair cos it's getting so thick and going out of shape... haven't cut it since last december... thinking of growing my hair long... since it's winter now... i have not grown my hair beyond shoulder-length ever... we'll see how it goes... dunno if long hair will suit me though... it's a hassle having long hair also...still haven't decided if i should attend the congress... should i go or not??

StAtuS: ObSeSseD...

obsessed... i am declaring myself to be officially obsessed over the show now... been watching it so many times now and thinking abt it day and night... i think that's all i have been thinking abt these past few days... alamak... how... now i really want to go korea already...

yesterday went to anna's house for a gathering to celebrate her bdae... bought her a tiramisu cake and she cooked korean dishes for us... really nice... although i didn't dare to eat the ox tail that she prepared... after lunch, we sat down and watched suddenly 30 while we ate cake and chips... ate till i was so bloated... took pics too... saw her son justine for the first time too... really cute... stuck to anna like a magnet the whole time, everywhere she went, he also followed...

nothing much exciting happened... just waiting now for my new laptop to come so that i can use, instead of using the old one which kept hanging on me... and watched the semifinals this morning between germany and italy... was hoping that germany would win... sigh... oh well... oh and saw the earth shaking news... haha... that david beckham quit as england's captain... think he must be really upset that england did not win... maybe also bcos he's getting old as a footballer also... he's still my alltime fav football player... think that he's a good father, husband and player...

clinicals starting next week already... dreading it actually... dun even noe what's going to happen... do i have to prepare anything? like read up on stuff or what? can't watch tvs anymore... oh and found out that i can't be a volunteer for the OT congress bcos the compulsory briefing's on mon, which is the first day of clinicals, so i can't attend... maybe it's trying to tell me that i am not meant to attend? i have to pay like $190 to attend the congress for one day... "hai wo bai gao xing yi chang!"

1st WeEk oF holiDayS...

today is the last day of june already... my first week of holidays is coming to an end... on mon after orl exam, angela and me decided to take a train down to kingswood where the hospital that we are going to for clinicals is located... it was almost a 2hour journey there... and the train fares are hiking up again... a weekly ticket there is going to cost me $45!!! the hospital was quite new and nice, at least it's more than 1 storey, which most hospitals i have seen are... and the pple there are quite nice so far... we toured ard the place, found out that offer hostels for students to stay... and i was really considering to stay there for 2 weeks during the clinicals... but after thinking abt it, i decided not to... cos firstly, it would cost me more to stay there and i dun think i can stay there by myself... not as independent as i thought... so the down side would be that i would have to wake up really early in the mornings and travel for long periods of time in the cold...

during the week, i did not do much except bumming ard at home, looking for a new laptop cos my current one died on me during the exams... shitty... now i can't even start it and i still have stuff saved on it that i have not backed up... i dunno how am i going to transfer those... finally ordered one online yesterday night, after much browsing ard... it's a dell model and apparently it's got really good features at a reasonable price... went to eat yum cha at that north ryde rsl club again, this time with uncle and auntie, prisy and michelle... and again, it was really expensive, even though we did not order much... i dun even like to eat dim sum and stuff... but bcos we could not decide and prisy had to rush to work... i never ever want to go back there again... if i can help it...

went to eastwood yesterday and rented a korean series called my name is kim sam soon... quite hilarious but i dun really like the main actress, kim sam soon... i noe her character is to be like this person who does what she wants and dun care abt what others think, but sometimes she can be so overbearing, and okay, i have to say this, the main actor, hyun bin, is damn cute leh! haha... has a boyboy look also... i think he's better looking than Rain... anyway, i would give it 7/10, sometimes it can be quite cheesy... but cute...

went to hornsby at night with prisy... bought a navy blue pants for clinicals... nothing much... and went to work again on wed... felt so alienated when i stepped into woolies, cos i haven't been to work for almost two weeks... and i have officially worked there for 1 year and 7 days, since june 23... congrats to me... haha... dreading work this weekend... working the shitty shift from 1-10pm on both sat and sun... help!