Picnics & Monsoon

It's been a while! Just finished another posting = Community Medicine. And I thought that medicine is only confined to hospitals until this posting enlightened me. True to its reputation, it was quite a picnic-ky & fun posting indeed, with many visits to healthcare-related activities around Terengganu. Will be missing this posting for sure.

Visiting a mother's home post delivery

Checking for 'kutu' in Kindergarten kids

Visiting the port in Kemaman and rewarded with mouth-watering famous Kemaman 'stuffed crab' courtesy of our lecturer! Must try!

Oh, and not forgetting the once-in-a-lifetime experience of coolness

Visited school canteens too for food inspection. Amused by the fact that there are separate corners for males and females to buy food

On another note, monsoon had officially began! It's a very REAL thing indeed. Not just limited to the Geography knowledge of 'Angin Monsun Timur Laut' from Nov to Mar that we studied in forms 1 & 2. Raining everyday, scary howling winds, mould starting to grow everywhere... Too much to digest at once! And when it rains, the whole of KT is transformed into a major snoozefest. It's just so nice to tuck in and do what everybody does best.

Never have I seen such strong waves before. It began quite a distance away from the shore. The picture really doesn't do it justice. Come and see for yourself!

Curfews & Escapades

*The streets are deserted. There's sound of cannons blasting in the air and a layer of smoke is seen in the sky.*

If you're not a local here you'd have thought that the Japanese are back and that curfew had started. But have no fear, buka puasa time is here.

One thing that shouldn't be missed in KT during ramadhan is their ramadhan bazaar, which is comparable to the Connaught pasar malam. Throngs of ppl wading through the crowd to get their meals. Huge varieties of food to release the glutton in you. *Drools*

Finished my first posting in Internal Medicine last week. The lecturers are great, really learnt a lot despite the busyness of the schedule. Glad that I was able to learn how to do case write-ups, clerking real patients and examine them, the skills of taking blood, etc.

The hospital that we're posted to


Dr. James, a very knowledgable & dedicated lecturer

Headed to Pulau Kapas last weekend to destress. It's just a 10 minutes boat ride away from Marang, around 15 minutes drive from KT. The white sandy beach & crystal clear waters here are comparable to Redang, it has less people & only a few resorts so we felt like the whole island was ours. However, the snorkeling trip left much to be desired, as most of the time we were looking out for and avoiding jellyfish (perhaps its the season now). All in all, it is a reasonably priced, easily accessible and ideal island for a quick & quiet getaway from the hectic lifestyle we all live in.

Not downhill yet!

I was preparing to cry under the stairs this year, but apparently it's not all the way downhill after your 21st birthday! Maybe being far away from home helps.

Thanks to all the people who've remembered and for all the kind thoughts, SMSes, Facebook messages, calls etc. You've made my day.

Bad Rock

Got my internet connection at home after a month of hermitting myself in this land of 'Far Far Away'. (Seriously serious, they also have a Hollywood-ish sign here - Terengganu style. Check it out here)

So, it's been 5 weeks and 1 day since I left KL. The missing KL syndrome that was so rampant during the first 2 weeks had pretty much subsided, partly because of the heavy load of studies & also due to the nice people here who've helped me to adapt.

I'm staying in a place called Batu Burok, which is not that buruk after all considering that the white sandy beach (much nicer than PD) is just a few steps away from my house (pic).

If there's anything that I like about KT, it's the fact that I can come home after a looonnngg day of being in classes & hospital, say "Let's go to the beach!"; and my housemates & I will be there in a minute. Haha... Am I living in some of your dream homes?

The beach with Pulau Kapas in the background

Hermit crabs everywhere!

Well, I'll still miss KL very much for it's convenience in getting food (There's mostly Malay food here and Chinatown is 10 minutes away by car), I'll miss the traffic jams everytime I turn on the radio & hear traffic reports, I'll miss the major shopping malls with cinemas etc. (You see, there's not much of entertainment here so one weekend I went to the newest tourist attraction here and took photos:)

Who says you need cinemas when such dramatic events happen in real life?

From Kuala to Kuala

Greetings from Turtle-land!

Been here since Wednesday settling down, buying furnitures, trying to adjust myself to the new surroundings (with the weekends on Friday & Saturday, going to mosque church on Friday, most of the shops close at 6pm, no public transport except taxi, no cinema, Mydin being the biggest shopping centre, Malay food everywhere, etc) Phew, a lot of things to get used to.

On the studying part, just started my classes today (Sunday!) and from the looks of it, it's gonna get really exciting and interesting with my first posting being Internal Medicine, with case write-ups and all.

To all those ppl at home, take care and God bless. If you see my parents, drop by and say hi to them, reassure them that I'm fine here, still a Christian and no Malay girlfriend yet. Thanks!

Public Health Campaign

We interrupt this blogcast to bring you a message:

Must advertise this because planning for it had already taken so much of my precious holiday time. Yup, I'll be involved in the free marketing for UCSI health campaign for the public to raise awareness of diabetes and its effects to mankind. There'll be free health screening for blood pressure, body fat, blood glucose & cholesterol*; health education exhibitions on diabetes; and demonstrations of first-aid & breast self-examination. If you think your internal engines need to be checked, please join me in Sunway Pyramid this weekend! (Did I say please? Yeah, please!)


*Blood glucose & cholesterol tests for 45 years old and above only (As usual, the disclaimers are written in the smallest font possible)

Back to stone age

Terminated my streamyx account today. One of the final things to do before moving over to KT because both my parents don't use the internet. Well, also partly due to my cheapo-ism of not wanting to pay another month of fees since their billing date is on the 28th of every month.

Posting this using dial-up connection @ 41.2kbps. It took around 5 minutes to load this page. Haha... and we think that streamyx is slow. It's been soooo long since I've used dial-up that I was surprised to hear the music accompaniment when we first dial up to connect to the internet. And not to forget every minute connected costs 4cents. Which reminds me, I'd better stop here till I can find somewhere with free wireless connection.