The year that was....2007

So, yet another year has come and gone. Soon, we'll enter another brand new year.
Now being the end of the year, most of us would take the time to sit back a little and reflect on the events that happened during the past year.

For me, the year 2007 was.....not particularly eventful. But that's good in a way, because it means....peace.

a) EOS1, which I thankfully passed
b) the enjoyable and relaxing holidays after that
c) working in 'the Star'
d) 2nd year of medicine- learning about the heart, lungs, blood, gut
e) oh yes, how can I forget- attending the convocation ceremony, and officially graduating with 2nd class honours in BSc Neuroscience from Cardiff University!

This past couple of weeks has been rather relaxing for me. Sleeping and eating ( both at home and out at coffee shops and restaurants) I did manage to do some revision, although it's progressing rather slowly, I must say.

And I manage to squeeze in some driving too. Lately, I've been having more guts to drive. Before this, I was always afraid of driving for fear of getting into accidents, bumping the car, or what not. But I think it's time for me to cast all these fears aside and just take control of my car. If not, I'll never learn to drive. I did scratch the bottom of the rear of the car once earlier on this week.

And this break has improved my mood too! More rest= a more relaxed and happier Ailing.

See you in 2008!!!

Christmas

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

This year has been a great Christmas so far.....attending Christmas service last night, listening to the church choir singing the carols, watching a puppet show....then after that going out to Colours for a late night snack and chit chatting with mum and uncle David.

Then today I had to bring my maid to shop for some new clothes.

You know, sometimes, we get so caught up in the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas shopping, decorating the house/shop, putting up the Christmas tree, sending out Christmas cards and presents, preparing Christmas dinner......until we forget the true meaning of Christmas.

Is Christmas about Santa Claus, jingle bells, presents and turkey? Probably.

But there is a deeping meaning to Christmas than that.

Remember that Christmas is the time we celebrate the birth of a baby boy....who would then grow up to save the world....to save us from our sins.

There was no room for Jesus in the inn. He was born in a barn. Such a humble circumstance He was born in. Had the innkeeper known who this baby truly is, would he have done anything differently?

My friends, as we celebrate Christmas today.....let us enjoy the celebrations, cherish in the joy of being with loved ones, the joy of loving and giving....and let's not forget the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas, isn't Christmas,

Till it happens in your heart

A random outing....

So this afternoon, I brought my maid to the MJC area for lunch. There were so many cars, and parking was extremely hard to find. Even worse was when you're reversing your car out. The cars passing behind just simply wouldn't give way to let you get out.

Anyways, we discovered a new open market- and decided to explore it. She begged me to buy this fruit (pic above) which cost about RM16 for 1 kg. So expensive! I decided to be adventurous for a change and give it a try. Didn't like the taste of it.

Do you know what is this fruit called in English?

p.s Grrrr.... I hate slow internet connection!!!

p.p.s What do you do when someone gets mad at you for something that you know is entirely not your fault?

Cell Group E20 and the yummy chocolate cake!

Cell group E20

The yummy chocolate cake!!

On Friday, we celebrated our cell group leader- Laverne's birthday.

Her birthday was actually last week, but due to unforseen circumstances, we could only celebrate it for her todoay.

Kar Wai spent a few hours baking the cake- a delicious chocolate cake....yummm.....

Know what? I actually think I like this cell group after all. The guys especially are a friendly bunch of people :) The Kars and Kelvin....they are all so nice to Rachel and I. :)

p.s. When will a woman ever win Survivor anymore? I really thought that Amanda Kimmel would win Survivor:China. She was playing a solid game alright, making the decisions(e.g. the James boot) but letting Todd take the brunt of the potential jurors. And she was doing a good job of sucking up to the jury as well (e.g. Erik and Peih Gee before they were voted off). What happened in the end? Where did she go wrong? Courtney Yates surprised me- never expected her to even get one vote!

Sorry, just had to let this out of my system. Hah. (It's just a game. Why would I be disappointed for someone whom I don't even know personally?)

Anyways, congratulations Todd Herzog for winning Survivor:China. You played a great game throughout- and it's great that a huge Survivor fan won. You deserve it, now go spend your money wisely!

Haemato/GI exams

Ok...so it's finally over.

On the whole, I think I did better compared to the CVS/Respi exams.

Here's the breakdown of the sections:

OBA:- I really thought I did ok, that's until I went for the feedback session. And discovered that I got almost half of the questions wrong. And became depressed by that discovery. Simple,straightforward questions like the role of NADPH and G6PD deficiency- I couldn't answer because I didn't study properly. And there were several questions which I had the right answer the first time, but changed to the wrong answer. Arghh...
*I still can't get the frustration out of my head right now- I really feel like I should've done better for this section.

EMQ:- did surprisingly well in this part, 4 mistakes.

OSPE:- I could answer both questions ok, one better than the other.

MEQ:- was ok, I know that I did my best.... I think I'll get about half (or slightly more) of the total marks

I think I should learn not to compare with others, but to just compare with myself. Because if I compare my results with my batchmates', they will always do better than me. And I would end up depressed by that thought.

Why can't I just be myself and stop comparing myself with others- not only academically but in other aspects of life?

And I should learn to not look back and dwell on the past but to look ahead.

34 more hours....

To the GI/Haemato exam.

Cramming in notes and facts at the last minute........(why oh why didn't I start revision earlier? I never learn, do I?)

Arrghhh!!!!

I don't want to just barely manage a pass again....I wanna do well in this one!

Ouch!!

I cut my thumb just now, while trying to cut open the cap of a new mouthrinse bottle.
Pretty deep cut, I must say although small. Blood kept on oozing out of the wound, and blood was dripping everywhere.
But I felt fine. Now, everything is fine- cut has been bandaged- floor has been cleaned.

Cleaning room

On Tuesday, my bedroom's aircon decided to leak. And the leak was rather bad- so much so that I had to place two pails beneath the aircon.

Yesterday- I called an aircon repair serviceman to come to repair my aircon. He ended up reparing my housemate's aircon and condenser as well. He took about 3 hours- from 4:30 to almost 8 pm. And the charge....RM300- since he repaired 2 condensers at one go.

And not to mention the cleaning up I had to do after that. I took the opportunity to tidy up my bookshelf.

And I ended up not doing much last night- and feel asleep instead. That was the 2nd night in a row I did that. I woke up at 10 this morning feeling so guilty that I didn't accomplish anything last night- and so I decided to skip lectures this morning. I do feel guilty about it, but....I really had to study....I have so much lecture notes to catch up on. Plus I'm the type that doesn't really learn much during lectures, I learn more through self-studying the lecture notes.

I'm so dead for the upcoming Haemato/GI exams. :(

When will I ever learn?

Oh dear.....the mistakes that I make......

Let's take a look at the mistakes that I made this past week....

1) first thing on Monday morning, was rushing for lecture, dropped my bunch of keys in the narrow wedge between the lift and the ground

2) was not in a good mood on Tuesday night, refused to join housemates and gang for group study outside, because wanted to concentrate studying in room

3) didn't eat breakfast that FH's mum prepared on Thursday morning, because was too in a hurry

4) arrived 15 mins late for CSU session yesterday morning. Was asked to write down name in a record- for 1st warning.

When will I ever learn from my mistakes and change?

But I know that I can look back and some of the silly and random things I do sometimes and learn and extract positive lessons from them.

And I know that I have a God who will forgive me for all my sins and past mistakes.

I cried at church today when I heard the song 'Amazing Grace'. The lyrics suddenly become very meaningful to me.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.

:)

p.s. Wow, my coursemates are working very hard right now, not a single person had updated their blogs recently....