Brussels-where mussels come with fries

This is the land where my dream of craving pralines came true..
The land of art of the Gastronomy.
Brussels, the land of chocolates and pralines..the capital of the bilingual Belgium..where French and Dutch are the major population here.




The unique heritage is expressed in lace and Belgian lace is well known for it's fine art..



Fries with variety of sauces that can't b found in other part of the world...



Belgian waffles (Gauffres)..it's the die heart must try !People swamps for it okay!
They bake the waffles with special iron that is only available there in Brussels where the waffles are crunchy-golden outside and fluffy inside...*drool*
they come with different toppings...the sugar coated Gauffres is special for the burnt sugary scent...ooolaa laaa..strawberries, choc, banana toppings..u name it, they serve it..







Did you know that this country produces 172,000 tons of chocolate per year?
The Belgian produce chocolate with their traditional way and the 1st praline was manufactured by the Belgians and that the idea of a little chocolate shell filled with delicious creams, ganaches, marzipan and other pralines is born.



some choc machine display i saw ...



The luxury chocolatier started selling fine chocolate in the 1880's before they gain fame through out the globe.Godiva, Neuhaus,Guylian..are not uncommon for you.





The Grandplaz



the Speculaas, the shortcrust biscuits in Belgium.Not cheap.They tell the story about St Nicholas..where the biscuits were stamp and tell stories.





One of the past time in Belgium is beer drinking and here Belgian breweries produce about 800 standard beers.
We came to the place where most beer were serve ...around 500 different kind of beers you can order here.










Some sinful things we did while visiting Belgium...





Last but not least..the Manneqen pis( the peeing little man)..


and the squatting little woman, T___T... just outside the bar we went

Pisces sailing 12 hours

For my entire life, i love the ocean. Christopher Columbus sailed across the seven seas, whose voyages led to the expeditions which created history to mankind.
Nothing great for me sailing just across the straits but it brought something called FUN. :P


quick stop before embarkment


Mum was intrigued over the little yatch


The hallway, where the star-studded carpet makes your day...lolx


Don't pay RM 150 and be Leonardo Dicaprio..


If your darling Rose has jumped..call this


Woke up 0600 in the morning just to capture this baby..

Trisomy 18

A retrospective entry.
Child was born on 14th March, boy, term but small for gestational age.Birthweight 2.11kg.
Clinically suggestive of Edward's syndrome,presenting with:
Trisomy hands
Low sets ears
Rockerbottom feet
small lower jaw
imperforated anus
heart murmurs

Baby was kept nil by mouth, solely on drip and it has to be monitored strictly as he doesn't have a patent anus for bowel output.So, we had to aspirate the stomach contents before it reached the large bowel.
So, he has to get surgery for the imperforated anus, but the question was, was he operable?



We sent his chromosomal study to Bertam and off we went to get an ECHO for his heart viability.
The father was along with us, the mother was not.SHE, was ill.





Well,i would say it was soulful moment for me, the father to meet the peadiatric cardiologist.
ECHO showed Pulmonary atresia, VSD and large PDA.



In view baby's condition(imperforated anus), heart pathology and his chromosomal quiry, such perplexing uncertainties were very much a torment..
As long as the ductus arteriosus remained open under prostaglandin, he could stil undergo colostomy surgery.As for the heart, Edward's syndrome is not viable for any cardiac intervention..

I could feel the air static, humming of the air-con and ticking of the wallclock..as Dr A was explaining the pathology of the heart and what outcome and prognosis would he foresee.. her eyes teared.And the small one was lying in the incubator, sleeping peacefully .

we left the clinic after 3 hours.Baby shall continue his drip and KIV for surgery..



Baby was not patient enough..he couldn't stand the stress, and amount of drip given to support him but yet lethally brutal..
Took his last breath at 7.25am the next morning.='(

Roaring CNY 2010

Here are some of the pictures i took with my newly handled DSLR skill.
All pictures were taken with Canon EOS 500D.
























Happy Chinese New Year!!

Little angels/Devils

Howdiee!! Has been a loooong time since i write a new entry.. Now i'm dealing with little people..who are so little and soft like cotton...who smell just like talc..and they all do smell the same..regardless different skin tones .. Every little movement they make...every primitive synergism ..it's something that could intruige my curiosity to know what's going on in their little system..

and they are kung fu fighter..you will understand when you start producing one for yourown...hik!

Big baby from diabetic mother

Cute baby with presumed sepsis
she blows bubble and grunts like a piglet

Reluctance

I applied 2 days leave as my brother has just came back from Perth.The feeling of homesickness was tremendous and much more excruciaiting comparing my uni days in Russia. Funny huh? This might due to the nearer your heart to your home ..the greater is your agony and anguish..thus mind torturing when you could't see your loved ones and yet they are so nearby.

Some of the changes i have just found in me.

1)I could possibly reject all friends' outing and cancell all yam cha, devoting my time to my family. Family comes first now, my social life has turned zero degree.

2) I am tired of shoppings. It's so true that being a highly paid profession, one wouldn't spend money on clothes anymore. I thought i would be the happiest girl in the world with luxurious clothes and etc products..but things had changed lately...I have now yearn for body slash mind relaxation thingy....health comes first over materials.

3) weight is not an issue to me anymore. Cz i would just eat what ever is available or provided in the pantry when i'm famished.

hmmm....this would be a messy entry...cz basically i'm just writing what ever i feel like to..

I now realised that how little is my clerkship now cz now there were 2 new taggers who just joined us again...

Nowadays..HO would have to fight for clerking and doing procedures and stuffs so that we wouldn't be jobless and less productive..so in order to be one...one have to be hyper- pro-active in order to grab any chance before anyone else's do.

Even in OT, we also have to fight to scrub in in order to familiarize with the operation. Why would i say so, cz this would be a good base for us when we are on calls and have to scrub in in any emergency op.

So, in order to make myself more productive, i also have to fight for typing the op notes. It's a post op notes about all the intra-op findings, op steps and procedures, post op observation and management....It's would be quite confusing when the surgeons use multiple types of sutures, from Silk 3/0 to silk 5/0, then Dafilon or Daxon with different sizes, or Prolene or monochrome...kantoi when the MO catch you documenting the wrong sutures and sizes

I'm so looking forward to December...

2 months old

Yes, the title has its say..I'm a 2 month old HO, surgical department.
I think i have just overcome my transitional period in adopting the local culture and system, able to cope with the flow and workload.There's one thing that could deflect my previous distress is I'm now gaining weight!
Ah~how ironic. HO used to skip meals and sleepless nights..but now, outpouring numbers of HO in a ward has made things the other way around.I even get to sleep when i'm on call.

I would also like to share something personal here..
What i understood is, housemanship is supposed to be a good period for training, a good time to arm yourself with knowledge and skills so that you are capable/ competent to manage a patient/ a collapsing patient when you are at the peripheries.
Things are not up to par here.I would be grateful if MO's are kind enough to show us a proper guideline or at least they give a clear instruction/ order with some humane reason whenever they command the HO to do stuffs for them, who have greater /major responsibilities to carry. They are mean at times, making stories and put blames on the HO when things get crappy so that they have someone to cover their arses....pardon my language.Unfair isn't it?

Lemme share a story .I was on call. There was no new admission. I even put effort in reading all case sheets before going to sleep on the sofa where it was the only place HO on call could be.It was a peaceful night till the next morning my collegue came asking me why i didn't clerk new admission. I was awed and was totally ignorant about that.She then exclaimed that I was notified by the PPK about the admission. "huh?" that's the only response i could give her.
MO was just aside...geez..witnessing the whole incident ler..
"why you din clerk?
" I er...didn't know about that....and i didn't get any call ...i dont get any missed calls also..." ( usually on call people will receive calls whenever they are ' wanted'.)And that's how i defended myself.The MO just kept silent.
With my flick of response..i traced ED clerking notes in the computer. Voila! The MO had already attended the patient while i was sleeping and yet no body really notified me about the admission.See..what bullshit and nonsense are created to make us look stupiat in front of the public...I have nothing to say but remain this to myself.

WE are just the plankton swifting among big fishes..no words to be heard, but blames we have to bear.So, peeps..do prep yourselves with great endurance when you meet MO like this.Now i know how to selectively listen to their words..not every words are worth listening..

i shall dot dot dot

i hereby bow in the name of KKM, serve ma people and ma country and the needy.
i, shall work with uttermost eficacy,endurance, honesty, loyalty, gratitude and responsiblity.
i, shall not abide laws for my own goodness / benefit.
..
..
..
..
dot dot dot

i, shall wake up before sunrise and leave my ward after sunset
i, shall starve myself and monitor every patient's dietary balance TDS
i shall strain my bladder and to keep patient's urine output at optimum level
i, shall sleep on the couch and to let nursing care patient to sleep on ripple mattress when i could ache my back on every on calls that coldness and mozzies are my awakening nighmares.
i, shall check on every bowel preps awaiting for OT when mine is just as adynamic as a rock.

dot dot dot..

Off tag

7 days of tagging...now i'm off tag. Tagging is a period for me to familiarize with the working environment and the culture of local hospital..
When stepping in the Kenanga, i felt the gush of pressure hitting my stomach. How would the MO and JMO treat me? would they bully and scrutinize me for an oversea HO like me? I've heard a lot about this bias thing circulating the country, and this is quite a bane for this carrier..i presume.
I was proven wrong. They welcomed me with an open heart, willing to lead me and guide me when curiosity and nescienty striked me. I've made mistakes and the clerkship was a total disaster, humouring my collegues and the MO with terms that jollied them. T__T
Well, sometimes i'm a no body...with no pride and low self-esteem. Even the nurses treat you like a Hey-no..But i have to beat that..cz they are savour when we are too busy to endend rescue dose of Actrapid for diabetic and Norvasc for hypertensive patients. We are the warriors..but They are the angels..the watching eyes of god.
Working hours are crazy..the standard 8-5 is crap..HO works from 0630-0000..hectic and stressfull. When we are monitoring Patents' electrolytes and fluid..in the other hand..HO are dehydrated.. Skipping meals is a norm..i lose 2 kg in just 5 days.I just sound hateful aint? no..i like this job. It's something that would bring me satisfaction when i see patients wake up from alleged motor vehicle accident with Glasgow scale rising from 5-9, an amends to sleepless nights and peer pressures when patient could manja with you after she had just recovered from GI bleeding..
some little snippets that really make my day.

Selamat Hari Raya

To all my Muslim Friends, Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir & Batin

My posting, appeal approved.

Recently busy prep for my posting.

During induction conducted by KKM, i got my letter and once i unsealed it, the word " hospital Tunku Fauziah" stunned me.I got awed for awhile thinking what hospital i got posted to...then i scrolled down the sentence and saw Perlis...ZOMG! my hands and feet turned palor and shivered...i sensed the world went whirlwind and spinning around me...i got delusional..

i appealed and approved!

Currently posting at SP...not too bad!

ciao

cliche

Some of the cliche doings while backpacking in groups..

Everyone wants to be at the perfect spot and angles.Multiple shoots with different portrait but same setting..
Even one person stands on the street,the rest would luurrve to stand too..




Advertorial pose makes the picture juicier!




Everyone becomes animal lover convert.






and baby/babes lovers..




This little one sure has poise in him..=)


When the souvenirs are jaw droppingly arse-painfully unaffordable,all we could do is to eye wash ourselves..