Medical Student Down Under

And here we go again.

Posted by: xiaow3i on: July 5, 2009

2 weeks of holidays, gone. Too short, way too short.

Well, at least I had quite a good break:
- Spent time catching up with the people I hardly see since we are in different hospitals/rotations, and not to mention a yummy claypot rice dinner by the very hospitable Ho-s :)
- Played mahjong like crazy. Ok lar, not very crazy, but the number of times we played in these 2 weeks > the number of times I played the whole of last year.
- Went to KTV! OMG I haven’t sang in agessss, so happy :) And they actually have 维健’s songs here, wow!
- Watched the tennis. Hasn’t been very exciting, to be honest.
- Did a bit of studying.
- Got faculty approval for my elective but still subject to Monash Abroad’s final approval. And they didn’t reply my email, what’s new, I should call them.
- Started on my elective grant proposal, which I keep procrastinating so it’s still not finished.
- Did some travel research on Tanzania and Kenya, can’t decide where to go, $ and time are the issues!
- Read Six Months in Sudan and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and now halfway through The House of God.
- Ironed my clothes after they have been sitting in my wardrobe for 2 months.
- Worked on my usual Tuesday nights (don’t think I can work next sem, boo to no income).
- Swam twice, 1km each. Not enough exercise me thinks.
- Shopping plans didn’t suffice but I guess I’ve done enough online shopping. Better save some money for I will go broke this month, having to pay for electricity, car rego and car insurance.
- Slept 8-9h every day, WOOHOO!

I hope I survive the next 18 weeks. And the exams, of course.

Halfway there.

Posted by: xiaow3i on: June 18, 2009

Finally done with the exams today. The OSCEs were really exhausting, we had 9 8-minute stations, and before each station we had a rest station for 8 minutes to prepare, plus in between there were 2 minutes for each change over. In short, the whole process lasted for 3 hours. My brain was almost fried towards the end =S Was really nervous at the start because it’s the first time we don’t have any stems; in previous years, we always had the scenarios released to us a week beforehand, so that we were able to prepare and focus our practice. However, this year was very much difficult as we couldn’t really predict what would come out, and hence we just practised widely and prayed hard that at least some of the things we had covered would come out. Which it did, so that was good.

I guess overall the scenarios were more ‘real’, because in the real world, we would be examining patients when they present to us, not having any prior information. The bad thing was that I couldn’t think on my feet fast enough, and there were times when the diagnosis came to me the SECOND I stepped out of the room. Bloody hell. I felt really angry with myself, really. Oh well. I’m just glad it’s over and I pray hard and hope that I pass. We were told that we should know by the end of next week if we need to sit for the supplementary exams or if we have failed beyond salvation. No news will be good news.

So my holiday of 2 weeks and 3 days have begun. So short, yet so much to do. I need to:
1. Exercise. Been slacking for the past 2 weeks and eating/snacking heaps, need to stay active.

2. Work. Probably can only work for the next 2 weeks, not sure how my schedule for next semester will be like, but I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t be able to continue my Tuesday nights. Damn, I will miss bubble tea :(

3. Write my proposal and apply for the MIGA elective grant.

4. Hurry the slow-poke faculty and associate dean to approve my elective application so that I can proceed with flight bookings and travel plans etc. I dropped the coordinator an email early last week, my reason being January is 6 months away, and should they not approve, I’d have to source for another elective and some places require application at least 6 months in advance. She said I should have a reply end of the week or next week, ie this week, but I’ve yet to hear anything. I’ll have to email again on Monday if there is still no reply.

5. Read. I’m halfway through Six Months in Sudan, and I’ve got House of God and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas sitting on the bookshelf. Oh, and also Lonely Planet Tanzania.

6. Study (yes I’m a nerd, I admit). I have plans to start studying for paeds since everyone’s been saying how it’s impossible to finish reading everything. But I don’t know if that plan will be put into action. Also plans to meet up with the study group and start on some VIA revision.

7. Watch Wimbledon – it starts next Monday!

8. Do work for *secret club to be revealed in the near future*

9. Do work for Project ‘Miles for Smiles’, an initiative to raise funds for the Children’s Cancer Foundation Singapore.

10. Shop! Then again, I’ve bought a few things online in the past few days, so maybe I should stop spending. But I’ve got a date with the girls for Monday, I reckon some window shopping won’t hurt :)

11. Catch up with people! Haven’t seen some people for a while, or even if I have, haven’t had the chance to have a proper chat and hang out. Meals, mahjong, hanging out at my place, whatever. I just want to see YOU! :)

That’s a longgggg list, I honestly don’t know how much I will be able to achieve in 2 weeks. I guess at the same time I should rest well in preparation for the next, supposedly more intense, semester. I can’t wait for this year to be over.

Apple Crumble

Posted by: xiaow3i on: May 26, 2009

I did a google search on recipes, there were heaps online, but eventually I picked this one from She Bakes & She Cooks because I used to read her blog frequently (’used to’ not because I don’t like reading anymore but because updates are rare these days!) and I pretty much trust her taste. It came out too dry and powdery I felt, and I’m not sure why the crumble didn’t turn brown, but it tasted alright. I had a look at some other recipes and it seems like the one I used called for far less margarine/butter than others. Maybe that’s why it’s too powdery and not lumpy enough? Perhaps next time I’ll try rubbing in the butter until I’m satisfied with the consistency rather than follow the exact recipe.

The ingredients

Grating lemon zest = free way to train right arm

Mixture of flour, brown sugar, rolled oats and cinnamon. Love the colours in this one :)

Sliced Granny Smith apples

The final product. Ok this was not the final product on Saturday, as I’ve mentioned earlier that the crumble came out too dry and powdery. I had some leftovers in the fridge, so this morning before I reheated it up in the oven, I put some thin slices of butter on the top and viola! It was indeed the lack of butter. I think I got it now :)

*********

In other news, my darling 2nd sis tore her ACL when playing soccer. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but apparently she could still go home after training, thought it was just a usual pain/injury, and tried to sleep it off. POWER. According to the doctor the MRI showed a complete tear, so honestly I don’t know how she managed to bear with the pain, I would imagine that it would have been unbearable. Anyway, she says she is going for a review in a week’s time so that the doctor can take a look again when the swelling has reduced before deciding on the next path to take. I hope she recovers fine, she seems really sad about not being able to play for now. Ah well, part and parcel of a sportsperson.

Last night was a crazy multi-tasking night. I was watching the French Open (Nadal and his ugly pink top), trying to find out for my sis if there was any way she could not take her PPT and still enrol in NTU/NIE, coming up with draft letters for a new project that I’ve taken up (I must be mad!), doing notes for respiratory infections in children, reading through my assignments, and being distracted by facebook/msn and what-have-you. Thankfully I have the day off today, though not quite cos I’m heading to work in a few hours. Okok, time to do some musculoskeletal revision! Till next time :)

The best present.

Posted by: xiaow3i on: May 22, 2009

In: random musings
1 Comment

And so I realised I forgot to mention that I’m a year older. Maybe I’m in denial. But honestly, these days when people ask me how old I am, I actually have to think before answering cos I’m not sure if I’m 20-what. Well, the memory impairment that occurs with aging.

Yes, so I celebrated my 23rd birthday almost a month ago now. It was a quiet affair, I was lucky it happened to fall on a Tuesday aka my day-off. Slept in, did some work, went for a swim, and then dinner at Hardware Lane with the boyfriend. Food was decent, and there was a live band playing, so it was all good =) And the best part was the present because I really didn’t expect the iPhone. I mean, I’ve been thinking about getting one but I was going to wait till I get my prize money, and I do feel quite guilty that he spent that much on me. I know other people chipped in as well (though until now I’m not sure who they are because he wanted to keep me guessing, so I just thanked everybody! 谢谢!), but I’m sure he paid for the bulk of it, so thank you dear! =)

A month in and I do love the phone a lot. The fact that I can now take my notes on-the-go is fantastic. As some of you may know, I do my notes on my beloved MacBook and I read from the laptop when I do my revision, thus I’m quite lost without it cos I don’t have hard copies. Though reading from the iPhone is not ideal for my eyes, it comes in handy when I’ve got a bit of time to spare and I don’t have anything else on hand, helps me make use of my time better. That free app I’ve got (Files Lite) allows me to upload up to 200mb of word documents, pdfs etc, and since my notes aren’t that big-sized, it’s ok for now. I’ve tried putting a few pdf textbooks but they load very slowly.

Now my only problem is the free app I have to read chm files (iChm Lite) can only hold 1 file at a time. I don’t really mind paying that $8.99 for the full app, but I’m not sure if it will allow me to upload bigger files (the free one wouldn’t upload my big file but worked with a smaller one), so if my bigger files, ie my eTextbooks, can’t work with the app, then it defeats my purpose of purchasing it. Though that being said, I wouldn’t know until I buy it and try. Bleah.

Also had a steamboat gathering at my place the Saturday after, so got to catch up with people and stuff. Got a really cute Tigger angel soft toy from the study group gang and later on xy told me she actually brought it here all the way from Singapore! That was sweet :) Now I kinda miss meeting up on Sundays (though we spend more time on other stuffs, ahem) cos I’m the odd one out who’s doing the semesters opposite from the rest so I can’t do OSCE practice with them for now. Ah well.

Anyhoos, I’m attempting my first Apple Crumble tmr so await more foodie pictures! :D

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