I suppose many of you have heard before of the weather in UK. How it's gloomy and depressing, and raining all the time. Most of the claims are true, because I experienced firsthand... and it's not pleasant D: For more than a week now, the southern coast of England has been plagued by ungodly strong winds. And when there's strong winds, rain will follow... whether I am in Southampton or Portsmouth. Some of you might have heard of the floods in London and certain other areas in the UK, luckily it didn't rain THAT much... yet. The temperature here is still bearable, hovering around 10 degrees or so. Gotta be thankful since two weeks ago it dropped to below five for the whole week... was afraid it was gonna stay like that for the rest of autumn.
Even if it's just 10 degrees, the strong winds here certainly makes it more colder than what it actually is. Damn you, wind chill factor! Because of this, start to wear gloves when go out liao, make my hand look like have acromegaly. And what makes things worse is when it's raining, the strong winds make you hesitate to open the umbrella. Who would want their umbrella turned inside out? Haven't happened to me yet, but has happened to a number of my friends several times already. Thankfully, the rain here is not really like back in Malaysia. So far, never seen it rain cats and dogs yet.
On the subject of alarms, it's back to one of my most hated topics: fire alarms. Yes, that alarm placed in everyone's room which is deafeningly loud. No, this time it's not because of fire drills or smoking/drunk students, but because of cooking mishaps. Sigh... here I though I live in one of the more quiet parts of the hall complex and end up my flat ends up with the most number of fire alarm triggers so far (I think...) Counting the latest one that happened just an hour ago, there's already about 5 'real' fire alarms so far. Damn, can't people learn not to burn their cooking so much? >.>
Now, on a more happier note.... I think lots of you have seen the results of my camwhoring session about a week ago on Facebook XD Yeah, due to the week long cold spell that I talked about earlier, I was compelled to buy a more thicker jacket that can last me through the winter. And tadaa, that's how I got my leather jacket. Mind you... it's not cheap for it set me back about 88 pounds. But since it's leather, it's quite a bargain actually :D When I first bought it, I loved it so much that I couldn't resist but force my poor hapless friends to snap pictures of me wearing it XD But now that the temperature had rose since then, I haven't really got the chance to use it :( Plus, the current rainy spell would spoil it anyway. Well, that's all for now... more updates next time.
So what's there to say about O&G? Actually, quite a lot. But time is against me at the moment so I will just say out a few things. So firstly, my attachment's in Portsmouth, which is about 45 km to Southampton. Every day, have to hitch a ride with one of the locals to get there. Secondly, I have to wake up at 6.30 am every day to get to the hospital on time. Now I know some people in Seremban do this on a regular basis, but I tak biasa lah.... plus it's getting friggin cold here that I very lazy to get out of bed (almost reached freezing point at Monday morning) Also, every day, about 5 o' clock only can go back.... quite a packed schedule compared to surgery. Like one of the gynecologist told us on our first day, only crazy people do O&G XD. Now that is out of the way, I'm gonna list out the reasons on why I love my current attachment.
First and foremost, we get loads of teaching sessions over here. Much, much, much more than what we had in Surgery posting. Almost every day have like 3 hours of teaching sessions, and the consultants don't do it half-assedly. No siree they do it pretty well, teach us very clearly and patiently. I really appreciate them taking 3 hours of their time teaching students. :D Though some of the O&G consultants are a little weird, maybe perhaps working too much overtime? XD One keep making awkward statements and remarks, as well as weird questions. And another is so passionate about 'common sense' that if I get a pound for every time he says that phrase, I would be able to pay my medical school fees for a year! Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
The hospital itself is very new, starting operations only from July (or was it June?) of this year. It looks very pretty from the outside, and you can gets lots of sunlight in the hospital due to the amount of glass they use XD (which is what we need when it gets too cold)
One of the newest picture I can find online
A complaint that I have though is that it is virtually impossible to get around the hospital without a security card. Every so often along a corridor, you get a door that can only be opened when you flash a security card to a nearby sensor. What makes things worse is that the temporary security cards that were promised to us has run out, available only from next week. We can't even access the damn teaching rooms and the storage lockers allocated to us without the damn security cards! D: Have to squat outside the doors till someone lets us in....
Another good thing is the interesting patients and the newborn babies you get to see here. Seeing all the newborn babies make you go 'Dawwww.... so cute!' One of the more interesting patients I had was a centenarian who came into the gynecological clinic yesterday. If you don't know what a centenarian is, it's someone who's a 100 years old. Yes... a century old! Other than a bit of a hearing difficulty, she's pretty healthy barring her gynecological problem. Wow, I can only wish I can be that healthy in my 70s. Anyway, another interesting thing is that in the UK, once someone reaches 100 years old, they receive a signed telegram straight from the Queen on their birthday. I was lucky enough to get to see one of those since she bought it to clinic to show the consultant. :D The consultant say she's undoubtedly her most senior patient. Also, this morning a patient just gave birth in the corridor. Too bad I wasn't there to see that happen as it was just a few corridors away from my location at that particular time. But, it does say that babies have no sense of time XD
So yeah, that's all for now. I gotta wake up super early tomorrow (about 5.30 am) to catch a train to a health center. It's quite some distance away from Portsmouth and that's the only way I can get there by 8.30 am. Man, I wish I have my car again :(. I'm supposed to shadow a community midwife around for the day... so yeah. Anyway, will update you folks on more issues next time. Cheerio!
Greetings and salutations, dear visitors. Today I shall impart upon you the story of my misadventures in Nottingham. *ends fancy talk* Yeah, so I went to the Nottingham Games last weekend and it was a blast, though I didn't really see much of the sporting events per se. Anyway, for you guys back in Malaysia who doesn't know what the Nottingham Games are, it's an annual sporting event where Malaysian university students represent their UK university in their bid for glory! So basically, it's like UK SUKMA XD Anyway and it's dubbed the largest Malaysian student gathering overseas. It's pretty much recognized by the Malaysian government and sponsored by many companies. Funny thing is that there's lots of imports, just like what EPL has nowadays XD
So, enough advertising. But it does surprise me on the people you can meet here. I even managed to meet my long lost primary school friend :D That's a real surprise! So, me, Yee Xuen, Jacqueline, Alex and Delia are the IMU Nottingham representatives (not in the games, mind you!) To get to Nottingham, we had to take a bus from the Highfield Interchange at about 2 am. Yes, 2 freaking AM! That and the whole return trip costs 28 pounds. Ouch.... Well anyway, it took about 3 hours + to reach Nottingham and it's damn bloody cold there so early in the morning. My legs were practically freezing there =.= Unable to stand the cold, we contacted one of the IMU-ians in Nottingham who came in their shining horse car to come and save us. Boy, were we glad that he came!
So, for that morning, we camped out at one of the M206-ian's house and it ended up to be one big reunion for the M206 batch. Oh, Sook Yeen dropped a surprise visit too! Apparently, Leichester is only 40 minutes away from Nottingham. Wow... so near... So, anyway, tired as we are staying up till 2 am in the morning, we tried to sleep the morning away, but I guess we got overexcited XD
Being surrounded by girls is kinda fun :D
Teck Jian, one of the house tenants. I'm sure lots of you know him XD
About lunchtime, we started to feel real hungry since we were sustaining on only roughly 2 hours of sleep. And guess what? They have a Malaysian food fair as well. Yippee! Long time no eat Malaysian food :D The Nottingham campus grounds is HUGE! So many more times bigger than Southampton. And I thought Southampton is pretty big already D: Even the IMU-ians there sometimes don't know where some things are located XD They even have a large lake in the middle! Feel a bit jealous but ah well...
Nice park with autumn leaves in the background. You know it's autumn when a gentle breeze blows and tons of autumn leaves fall around you. lol Like scene of drama
Posing for pic with our knight in shining armor driver who saved us this morning
Another completely different area. The park is massive... I shit you not.
One of their halls of residences overlooking the park.
I don't know what this tall tower is... but it reminds me of a cigarette butt XD
A unique tree we found in the university grounds. Quite a nice bark there!
The university library... I think. I prefer our university library, it looks more stylish :D
Well the way the Malaysian food was sold was using the coupon system like those during primary or secondary school :D When we entered the lunch room, immediately those familiar Malaysian food smell invaded our nostrils... wah, really miss those man. Seeing all the Malaysians sitting in one area and all the familiar food XD Anyway the food itself is not that tasty, cold and expensive. But hey, I'm not complaining! It's still Malaysian food!
Buying the coupon from the counter. Each of us got coupons worth up to 5 pounds
Posing with our coupons. Guess we're happy to get to eat food XD
In case you can't see, it's from bottom left clockwise teh tarik, char kueh teow, nasi lemak, satay, cendol and roti canai. Not as impressive as the nasi kandar in somebody's blog *ahem*
The full range of people who eaten there that day
So, anyway after wandering around the campus spectating some of the sporting events that day, we decided to go to the city. After all, it would be a crime to come to Nottingham and not visit the Nottingham Castle with Robin Hood. :D The castle needed an entrance fee so we ended up not entering it, but we still had some fun outside the castle. After that, we went off to see the high streets around Nottingham city. (that means shoplots for you Malaysians)
Posing with Robin Hood statue. The thief who rob the rich and give the poor!
The Nottingham castle grounds. Home to Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood's enemy
Supposedly the oldest pub in England. Not sure true or not... can't verify
Nottingham city high street. It has that nice old English architecture which I like :D
It looks even better during sunset XD
So after what seemed like a whole day of walking around, (my feet hurts like hell... how to accompany girl go shopping? D:) we went off to have dinner suggested by one of the Nottingham IMU-ians. It was a Chinese restaurant specializing in Scezhuan style, you know... the spicy, oily, sour taste. Anyway, that restaurant served real China Scezhuan style... not like the one you know back in Malaysia. It is spicy! Well, I don't really like Scezhuan food but eh, it's still food. Sorry, was too hungry eating forgot to take pictures during dinner XD
Anyway, after dinner it was almost time for the bus to pick us up from the campus. So we went back after wishing our friends good bye, hoping that we would see them again and inviting them to come to Southampton as well. It was a fun trip altogether, hope we get to visit other places in UK in the future :D Well, that's all for now. More stories next time!
P.S: This week is my last week in Surgery posting, next week onwards is O&G in Portsmouth. Well... wish me luck!
Hello there, boys and girls. Today, I don't really have a specific topic in mind, or rather too many small things to talk about, so I lump them all together. Okay, so first topic in mind. This week has been a rather free a.k.a unproductive week. Only two out of the five days this week I was actually at the wards. Now you might be thinking that Kay Por's just a lazy ass who skipped his ward rounds or something. Well, I may be lazy but then it's mainly because my consultants whom I'm attached to are on leave for the whole week.
Reason for the leave? Something about their children's term time school stuff or something like that. Actually, more than half of the hospital's consultants are on leave if I'm not mistaken. That's why even the junior doctors would be too busy to teach us. Like one of the registrars told my friend, it's gonna be a hell of workload for them this week. I tell you, the doctors here are way more free than back in Malaysia. Mmm... I wouldn't mind the work conditions here :D
Second topic that comes to mind... the shortening daylight over in UK. Winter is approaching and the daylight times are becoming shorter and shorter. Boy, it can look like 9 pm in Malaysia when it's just 4.30 pm in Southampton. I think soon I'm gonna wake up in the dark, go to hospital, then come back also dark time. Haha, no sunlight in my life. Quite depressing if you think about it.
Interestingly enough, I felt the effect of the famous Daylight Saving Time (DST) in UK last Sunday. It's a time when the clock is turned forward one hour so that you can get more daylight. Yeah, so on last Sunday at after 1.59 am, it reverted back to 1 am. Then when one specific day in March comes along after 12.59 am, it will fast forward one hour to 2 am to balance back the time. Pretty cool, eh? Sunday I got one hour extra to sleep XD But then, imagine you wake up and you see your alarm clock and watch is different one hour compared to your handphone and laptop. (Handphone and laptop can self-adjust DST) Made me pretty muddled up about the time for half the day, constantly asking everyone what's the time.
Third topic for the day, I got myself a haircut. And this means my first haircut overseas (yeah!). All though it costs a bomb (boo!). The haircut set me back about 13.50 pounds, even with student discount D: Well it was a pretty decent haircut though and the hairstylist did a good job washing my hair. That and he took my coat off for me when I arrived and put them on for me when I was about to leave, just like a fancy restaurant service XD Interestingly enough, the hairstylist is from Malaysia as well. Too bad no fellow Malaysian discount though lol
Well have run out of things to say. Looks like I don't have that much things to say after all. Maybe next time then :D
Last week, the Year 4 IMU students in Southampton decided to throw a BBQ party at their house. And they invited every IMU student there, meaning us + Year 5 as well, with a few other Malaysian medical students. Boy, I was looking forward to it. After all, it's been a while since I got to eat some nice BBQ food in the open. Altogether it was quite a big party, with about 30 or so people altogether, joining and going at different times. It was a nice way to get to know all the Malaysian students, and helps foster inter-batch relations :D
It might be me, but I felt the food was pretty damn good. Maybe I was just missing the food back home too much XD There were spaghetti, salad, grilled chicken and burger patties to name a few. Some of the students bought their own food along so it turned out to be quite a feast. Their neighbors were pretty nice as well coming along to meet and greet us, even though we are polluting the environment with the amount of smoke we're producing. Their house has a huge garden, so we were all able to fit in comfortably in their garden :D Some of their rooms are much bigger than mine as well, and their monthly rent price comes up cheaper than mine. Damn, next year must find a nice house. Anyway, there isn't much pictures of me since I forgotten to bring my camera. (How could I? D:) First to introduce some of our seniors:
First up, this is Alvin. I don't know what he posing as.
This is Kin Tong. Apparently, he is the technician/electrician of Year 4 students.
The one on the left is Emily and the one on the right.... is err... shit I forgot her name D: See the amount of smoke we're producing? Polluting the environment XD
The one in grey shirt is Diana Patrick. Well that's all the seniors that I have photos of. There's more, but like I said, didn't bring camera :(
During the BBQ, some of us were trying to light a fire and trying to keep ourselves warm.
Some of us were practicing photography skills and posing skills
While others were playing with a ball
And if you can't stand the cold, you can always go in and settle for a game of mini-Monopoly! Seriously, the bank notes were so small that it only as big as two finger size.
Well, that's it for now. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I will remember to bring my camera next time :D
So there I was last night, sleeping like a log in my comfy bed when I got woken up suddenly by the an annoyingly loud sound. Groggy and half-asleep as I was, my hands instinctively went for the alarm clock, thinking it was the source of the sound. When the sound continued and my pounding of the alarm clock failed to make the sound disappear, I began to wonder why the hell the volume of my alarm clock is amplified by a factor of 100. Only then, it dawned upon me, it was the damn fire alarm. Still not fully awake, I stared at blank space for about 10 seconds or so before reaching for my coat which was hanging near the room entrance.
Taking a peek at my alarm clock, it was only about 5 am. Cursing whoever triggered the fire alarm, I wore my coat and stepped outside. Off I went to the designated meeting point in the case of a fire, which was the carpark behind the flat where I live in. Other tenants were also trickling out of their rooms, all of them having a zombified look with a hairstyle you would expect from people who just got out of bed. Any sleepiness I had in my body immediately evaporated as I felt the cold early morning wind biting at my feet and hands. Do note that I was only wearing a single coat over my jammies. Most of the others were also wearing jammies, some with a coat and some with not. Some were also bathrobes while a select few were half-naked. Yes, you heard me.... HALF-NAKED. How the hell they managed to stand the chilling wind is beyond me.
As the crowd of people became bigger and bigger, I saw my fellow IMU-ians huddled together at one corner. And so, what else would I do other than join them and speculate with them over what would have triggered the alarm. After about 10 minutes, the warden in charge made an announcement:
'This is just a fire drill. Unfortunately, we are required to do this at least once a year.'
And already I hear people grumbling and muttering their annoyances. Hell, I feel the same as them. Why wouldn't I be? Here I was, shivering my ass off for 10 minutes in the cold wind with nothing on but my jammies and a relatively thin coat.
When I went back to my room, I found one of my flatmates hiding in the common toilet. Apparently, she was hiding from the noise of the alarm as well as the warden who was checking whether the building has been evacuated already or not. Damn, maybe I should have done the same. From that time I went back to my room, I couldn't sleep a wink. Classes were starting at 9.00am and it was only 5.40 am. As a result, that whole day I was feeling pretty tired with only 4 hours of sleep. =(
Finally! After lounging around in Southampton in search of a nice yet reasonably priced mobile phone plan, I finally settled on one! Behold, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic that came absolutely free with my contract!
Okay, that's the glamorous picture.... now for the real life one :D
Front shot. The screen looks a bit reflective because I've already put on a screenguard
Back shot
Yes, as you can see in the back shot, the phone's from the mobile company '3'. Yes, that's the name company... 3. Went on an up and down journey before settling on this one =.= It all began when I first came to Southampton. The mobile phone operators didn't want to offer me a contract with me not having any bank account. And at that time, only O2 has a plan that didn't require any bank account or card. That is the Your Country plan that came with free international minutes depending on how much you top up. For a while, I was content with the plan since I can use the free minutes to call back home or something.
After a few weeks, I started to get the urge to register for a contract since my bank account was up and running and I wanted a new phone. And so off I went to compare prices between Vodafone, O2 and 3. At first, I wanted to go with O2 seeing as going with the same operator would be less of a hassle if I wanted to retain my number. But then, I noticed O2 had significantly higher contract prices than Vodafone or O2. Sure, they had quite a number of fills and add-ons but I didn't really need those.
The main hassle of switching operators is if you wanted to retain your number, which is the same in my case. To do that, you have to request some kind of code from them, called a PAC code. Then, you have to give this code to your new operator so that they can transfer your number from your old operator system to their own. All this will take a few working days as well. Well, I kinda pity the guy whom I ask the PAC code from. When he found out that I wanted to leave, he tried quite hard to make me stay and I refused since there's nothing much he can offer. But well yeah he tried hard, so hope this doesn't mean a cut in wages or something XD
Anyway, my next target was Vodafone since many people say their coverage is very good and their price plans are quite reasonable as well. Plus, they have an impressive range of phones. However, things did not go as planned. When I went to a Vodafone shop last week and said that I wanted to apply for a pay monthly contract, they ran a credit check on me. And then they said that since I just arrived in the UK and don't have enough of a credit history, they can't offer me a contract.
WHAT
THE
HELL?!
When I inquired further, they say they can call me back if my credit history is good enough to apply in the future. So I asked them how long would that take? They said at least a month. Well, I can't stand that long without a phone because my credit left with O2 was only less than a pound. And so, Vodafone was out of the question as well.
And so, I settled down with 3. With a contract of 25 pounds a month for 200 talk time minutes, unlimited text and unlimited internet, I would say it's quite a bargain. Another plus point is that 3 phones come equipped with Skype. And since I have an account with Skype that gives me free international calls back to Malaysia, that means I can call back home as well using my handphone for free! Normally I would need to pay for internet bills when using Skype, but since I get unlimited internet so eh... :D
Alright, almost reaching the end now. Let me finish up the post by posting a random picture of the day.
Guy in milk shake cup... convinced us to buy milk shake from his store XD
