Cosmopolitan Adventure Part 2

Aaaaaargh..couldn’t stop the bloody alarm clock from ringing as I roused myself from my deep REM sleep and looked thunderously around at a unfamiliar surrounding. Oh God, why did I promise my friends that I will be at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2008 as a Singinspirator?









You see, I was the designated 'number 1 supporter' for my 3 other friends running in the Singapore International Marathon due to my tardiness in signing up. Thus, I woke up darn early on a public holiday after playing with my extremely naughty nieces and nephews who were jumping around me (and on me....ouch u bet it hurts when a 2 year-old precocious little girl fling herself onto your tummy!) the entire night before. I took a bus to the MRT station grumpily as the whole nation seem to be headed to the Padang for the race....everyone seemed to be so fit, especially the running uncles and aunties.

The crowd was pretty humongous by the time I arrive. At least it was already daybreak, I hung around where all the good food were and collected my supporter’s kit. It was so cool right? I even saw this huge shoe which could probably fit 10 of me!

Anyhow, I waited in front of the finishing line to cheer my friends but unfortunately, I couldn’t catch any of them. It was so totally jam-packed with the human race. The funny deejay was busy commenting on the runners, some half-naked while others were very skimpily dressed. I thought I saw a girl in bikini and another with bunny ears. Hahaha…

Alls well that ends well as both my friends ran their personal best in the best-organized race of the year..making me a teeny weeny envious as I didn’t run. I quickly banished that feeling as was too busy snapping up pictures of cute runners with hot bods (wink, wink)...After the race, we walked around town and freshened up to go for another run of eating and drinking along the Orchard Rd area.

I had one of the best meals in the year 2008 (besides the cheap and delicious seafood meal at Hutan Melintang..that was awesome too) at the Waraku Jap restaurant with the Subang Jaya gang. It was superb as we chowed ravenously on high-quality Japanese food, which was my all-time favourite.

Not only that, found the coolest, most happening hip watering holes this side of the Causeway at Clarkes’ Quay and managed to finish my mug of cold beer at the microbrewery. I wished we went into Zouk or something like that, but we were all too tired from the day’s exertion. I could see that my triumphant running mates were almost asleep by the time we downed the beer. Well, I am sure that there is always another excuse to hang out at Clarkes’ Quay!

Coming up next, chronicles of the buns of steel discovered at Penang!

Cosmopolitan Adventure Part 1

Last weekend, I was having a great time in the city down south..one of the most globalized city in the world. Singapore is quite fun to explore on foot and with a few extremely fun and hospitable friends around, we had a great time there.




PS and I traveled separately on different buses as we bought the tickets on separate occasions all thanks to my ‘superb’ organizational skills (or the lack of it!). It was clear all the way but the moment I crossed the straits…boom, lightning struck and rain started falling. Ah, what a wonderful start isn’t it? Darn…









After a long queue at the Immigation, we were off to drop my things and then met up with my dearest pal at the shrine to commercialism, Orchard Road. PS and I walked around in awe of the massive street décor while trying to locate our other friends, CS & WM (otherwise known collectively as the Running Guys).




The Running Guys were hanging around the same area waiting for the late girls (us) while people-watching. I think it was a fruitful season for them as many people (i.e. girls) were in minimal amount of clothing due to the hot weather (it stopped raining for a while but since when does a few drops of water comes in between girls and fashion?)












We spent the whole afternoon and evening alternating between filling our stomach with a lot of drinks and walking around the city centre. Of course we stopped by the Esplanade to view the beautiful roof and the marina bay area which was packed with cranes and construction set. Yup, the Merlion was surrounded by machinery in preparation for the upcoming casino in town, thus we weren’t that interested in staying along (other than the fact that we were totally famished again) Time for carbo-loading before the race!

Things we doctors find inside the human body

The human body contains many orifices. Certain ‘adventurous’ people do go off-tangent and occasionally they decide to insert various objects into their body parts. As I deal with the gut a lot, obviously we have to extract things stuck in the lower throat, oesophagus, rectum and the anus. Anything other than those areas, we have to wait and see..nature will expel a lot of objects as long as it can pass into a few constrictions in the gut.








We were chatting about the number of times we were called to remove things stuck and so far, a lot of notable patients came to mind. Over the past 2 years here, let me recall the few interesting incidents.

Patient number 1 came in with pain in his ass and previous history of schizophrenia. We brought him to the theatre and lo and behold, we found oranges, lemons and apples in his rectum. Now we know how he likes his fruits huh? Up his rear end!

Patient number 2 is a lady who came with bleeding from her urethra (urinary tract). We scanned and investigated her but could’t find anything wrong. After putting a scope up her urethra, guess what? We found the plastic cover of an eyeliner. Apparently, the patient ‘sat’ on her eyeliner cover and conveniently ‘forgot’ about it. All’s well that ends well as she left the hospital with no inanimate objects in her bladder!

The most recent event involved an elderly gentleman (in his seventies) who came with pain and bleeding from his anus. An X-ray showed a remarkably long and tubular object (around 25cm long) lodged in his rectum. I tried my best to stop laughing when we realized that it was a ‘toy’ stuffed up his rectum..yup, uncle went to Thailand and bought a dildo. Next thing he knows, he lose hold of the ‘slippery’ object while enjoying himself and the thing went in deeply into his rectum. When we asked why he inserted the dil— into his rectum, he said it helped him to pass motion.

As usual, Ms-aspiring surgeon was on-call and I tried to remove it in the OT but it was almost impossible as the did— slipped even deeper into the bowels the more we try to maneuver the long object out. It took us another day of waiting so that the bowel peristalsis pushed down the object and in the end, we managed to extract it with a lot effort, team-work and coordination.

In conclusion, a piece of friendly advice from the doctor : If you cannot resist inserting any foreign object into your body, do tie a strong string around it! The gesture is much appreciated :-P

10 Reasons why 2008 is not so horrid after all Part 2

This is the continuation from Part 1..a personal audit of 2008

5. Teluk Intan

Hold on, I've been in TI for almost 2 years d..so it's not a surprise that I've come to love this place. Yeah, I've finally figure that life here is slow-going, relaxed and 'cheaper'. It's not that eating out here is that economical, but the major point is that I can't go splurge in major shopping centres and eat in high-end restaurants unlike when I was in KL.


So, it's kinder on my coffers comparatively. Not only that, many more 'markers' of civilization has arrived or is arriving and so I feel very comfortable here. The best part is that I'm allowed to do a lot of surgical interventions and procedures here as long as I show competency, responsibility and proper knowlege in handling the equipments.



Therefore, this is a very nice learning ground for me to hone my surgical skills, knowledge and attitude at this stage of my training.

4. New gadgets

When I lost my stuff to burglars, I was very down (ok, ok, fine..I was depressed for a short while). Yet like what they say, the old has to go before the new can arrive. My new laptop is so cute, light and efficient with more memory and more programs to explore. At the same time, my new PDA is doing fine as it is fast becoming indispensable.

3. Wonderful travel places

If you are one of the handful ardent followers of my blog (thanks a lot for your support, CHEERS!) you would realize that I travelled a lot this year. Seriously, I think I broke a personal record for the amount of travelling I did this year and it's all thanks to a wonderful boss, nice colleagues and a lot of great pals whom I travelled with.














The highlights of this year included Kota Kinabalu, Mount Kinabalu, Kudat, Singapore, Penang, Ipoh, Yunnan (my first time in China) and many wonderful events in KL.

2. Wonderful friends

I've met a lot of new friends in this year and some of them will become my life-long buddies. It's amazing how fast we build lasting friendships when we are put in a small town and this is a special tribute to the 'gang' in Teluk Intan, Ipoh and KL. You know who you are...

Not only that, I've learnt that some people go in and out of our lives and although some of my old friends have left my life for better or worse, I know that they played a role in our journey in life. Of course, I'm also very grateful that some 'toxic' friendships have been eliminated. Although it was toxic at that point, if I could recognize the warning signs and lessons learnt, I'll do better in the future. Definitely :-p

1. Walking with God

Through the darkest, stormiest hours of my life, He was there for me. In my solitude and misery, He was my consolation. There is none like Jesus and for that I'm ever grateful. He walked with me through all the tears, fears and joy. He enables me to excel in so many things I choose to focus in.

I grew closer to the Lord amidst all the tribulations in the past 11 months. My life was greatly enriched by the ups and downs. At times, I wonder why is it that a few of my dreams remained dreams, visions still unfulfilled..until I began to surrender it all to the Lord and ask for patience, endurance and peace.

the year is drawing to a close..I reviewed my new year's resolution and discovered that I've actually achieved plenty of it. So, hey, 2008 is not too bad after all!

10 Reasons why 2008 is not so horrible after all Part 1

I was looking at the calendar the other day and then it dawned upon me.



“Oh my God, I’ve been in Teluk Intan for 2 years now. It’s so fast. What have I done for myself and for God?”

Aside from passing 2 exams in the process and learning a lot of surgical skills, initially I’m not sure whether I’ve achieved anything that’s significant. That’s until I begin to analyze each period of time in my life and list down the good things that happened in my supposedly-horrid year and surprise, surprise..this is a great year after here. So, the top 10 reasons why 2008 is not so horrid after all :

10. Physical activities


The fitness freak in me came to life when my buddies encouraged me to start exercising. As I’m a determined person and normally as stubborn as a mule, I don’t usually give up on things. However, it is also not easy to convince myself to do something unless I can achieve something tangible from it, being a very purpose-oriented person.

I began to run regularly, roller-blade with gusto and hike on occasions. For heaven’s sake, I even ran in three 10-km races, which is a big deal for a previously known couch potato and bookworm like me.

9. Blog and Photography

I love writing! Other than talking (another one of my favourite past-time), I feel that I’m much more eloquent when it comes to the written word. As for the art of taking pictures, I think I’m improving in it as I put in more efforts on taking nicer pictures and taking baby steps in mastering Photoshop.

Of course I’ve been whining and sighing about how much I long for a dslr and blah, blah, blah but the fact is that I don’t take that much of photographs to really justify owning something that good….except for the fact that I do covet a good camera. Like how I want a particular car which I know that realistically, I will not purchase in this lifetime. Sigh, people do crave for things that they can’t have isn’t it?

8. CG

It’s official. We’ve finally realized our dream of having a small care group in TI for the doctors here. Next week, we are celebrating the first anniversary of our little CG & it’s so exciting to see how God moves in our lives. A fellow co-founder is getting married in Dec while another girl is also tying the knot. It’s great to see such a vibrant and happy community supporting and encouraging each other when we are far away from our family members.

Not only that, PETI and so many of the community events that we have organized were quite beneficial to the local population in many ways unexpectedly. We do look forward to more ideas and fun in the year ahead!

7. Wisdom and wit

I don’t mean to say that I was stupid prior to this but I guess I was very naïve when it comes to certain things and people. This year has been a landmark year for me as I begin to realize that there are mean and cruel people in this world who only love themselves. These people will not care about others unless they can gain something from the person. Although I still choose to believe that there is goodness in everyone, I learn that we must discern wisely and sieve out the bad from the good. Enough said.

6. Courage and sense of adventure

I’ve finally let myself experience something unknown for the first time in my life. I mean, going to another country and learning to work in a totally different environment may be hard in the beginning, but I look forward to the adventure of it all. This is my first venture in working in another country as I intend to travel even further to experience life elsewhere. As I prepare to go sample life elsewhere and it’s a long way to go before I actually pack up, I pray that this is a right move in the right direction and not just a temporary decision made at the spur of the moment.

To be continued….my next 5 bright sparks in 2008 and why I decided that I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, finally!