not quite d.day

Let me set the scene...

semester 1 and semester 2 subjects are interchangable ~ this past semester, i've been doing MEDI3011 (chronic diseases) and MEDI3012 (subspecialties). the faculty went to revamp the course for next year so now, the 2 subjects i've just done are being changed. now they have MEDI3015 (professional practice) and MEDI3016 (clinical sciences - the meshing of the 2 subjects i just did this semester).

now here's the quandry..
i failed MEDI3011 but passed MEDI3012. means i gotta redo the one i failed... but!! MEDI3011 doesn't exist next year anymore. it's been replaced with the new subject MEDI3016. means i gotta enrol in that new subject. that's all well so far.. until u get to exam. because they've fused the 2 subjects into 1 for next year, it means that the exams will also be a fusion and so i need to sit for that new exam. means that i have to friggin resit for an exam when i've already passed the subject just because the faculty screwed up this year and changed the course back to the old one for next year. now tell me, how is that fair...

was gonna write more but im too tired.. mentally, physically and what the heck, throw in spiritually too. in short, i've decided to enrol next semester in one of the 4th year subjects i was originally gonna do anyway with this 3rd year subject i need to redo. it makes things less hard to accept but it doesnt change the fact that i'll still be one semester behind. it also doesn't change the fact that i'll be at a different graduation ceremony from my circle of gal pals. that is gonna be a bitch, as N put it. also means that the pressure's on to pass because over here, we don't have the 3 -strikes-you're-out rule. they're stingy. it's 2 strikes and you're out. right now, i've used up one strike even tho i've technically passed 3/4 of the friggin 3rd year for cryin out loud. grr.

monday the thirteenth

a whirlwind of a past 2 weeks or so...

• mei & her cousin came and went ~ gallavanted to the hunter valley and nelson bay, went horse riding thru the bush and sand dunes (that was amazing.. it always is even tho it's usually the same trail. funny how real bad memories are automatically blocked out. like the hordes of flies. think: black bumpy blanket.. )

random nature shots @ the ocean baths and the obelisk

• finally devoured The Da Vinci Code ~ was a good read, well written and obviously thoroughly researched but it didn't live up to the hype. or maybe the experience was slightly tarnished because of the hype... *shrug* personally, i think that people nowadays aren't exposed to the good books we were exposed to, growing up in the good ole 80s. harry potter's a huge scream nowadays.. yes, it's well written but what's the big deal. judy blume was just as good. roald dahl was in the league above. the chronicles of narnia were just as captivating. and who could forget those choose-your-own-adventure books? witch of blackbird pond. a wrinkle in time. nancy drew and the hardy boys. JRR Tolkein's hobbit series BEFORE the movies came out. (why is it that people seem to like jumping bandwagons? Mrs Squire was reading us a chapter a day at lunch from The Hobbit in friggin fourth grade, yet it wasn't a huge deal back then. it was just a great adventure story until nearly a decade later when the LOTR movies came out and suddenly, everyone had to have a copy of any work of Tolkein be it in vcd, dvd, hard cover or deluxe edition forms) even interstellar pig could easily outshine the kiddie books today. i could rant on and on about the various volumes that deserved the limelight more than the books ranked as "bestsellers" in this day and age but i can't be stuffed.. will just sit back, shake my head and sigh at the poor deprieved youth of this decade.
• moved rooms ~ upgraded, as someone so nicely put it. scattered remnants still remain scattered in my new room. the room still reeks of "just moved!" ... either that or "just burgled!"
• packed for taiwan ~ almost there. still doing the annual x'mas/return-home-with-presents-for-everyone thing. it's a pain to do shopping of any sort nowadays. it's chaos everywhere. road rage everywhere. people push, shove and glare more. people suddenly lose tempers and values alike in the middle of traffic jams or when they glimpse an empty parking spot despite 2 other cars signalling for it. a 60 year old man got pummeled to death yesterday afternoon in sydney due to road rage. talk about the holiday spirit, geez. this one seems evil.
• results out at 2pm ~ got only 4 hours of sleep despite trying to sleep. queasy knots in stomach. feel like puking. thought i'd faint in the shower. can't concentrate on anything. don't feel like doing anything. i even forgot to wish T and A good luck for their exams today! [note to self] gotta remember to do that for their next one. shows how well i think i'll do eh? *sigh*
  

friggin' telemarketers!!

and to think that i was complainin of nothing to blog about just a few hours ago!

she calls up, does the usual routine about asking if it's ok that the call is monitored yada yada yada and then plunges into her sales pitch of what's the best plan for me. so i listened at first and went that's nice, but no thank you. i'll stick to my current plan.

and then she got argumentative!

she was like, what's wrong with this current plan? im like umm.. nothing, i'm happy with my old plan and i dont want to change. so she starts her sales pitch of "that's what i'm telling you! there's nothing different about this new plan except you get 60 free sms and better rates" but frankly, at this point, i was ready to hang up on her and not change plans for the hell of it. so i listen to her sales pitch again. she must've repeated the thing 3 times before i relented and said thank you, i'll think about it.

what is there to think about? you mean you don't want to change plans now? she demands.

MY GAWD LADY! i froze out of sheer stupefication that she was still harping on the subject. trust me when i say that it took a hella lot of self control from screaming at her over the phone. i wanted to hang up on her but that felt too rude and i kept reminding myself that she's only doing her job.. she's only doing her job...

when i finally managed to wind down the convo, she had the gall to ask me if i wanted her to call me back next week after i thought it over. i was like.. for the last time lady, i already told you that I WILL THINK ABOUT IT AND GO TO A VODAFONE DEALER IF I DECIDE TO CHANGE PLANS. i think that if you were in the room with me at that point, you would've seen me twitching from the frustration.

13 minutes 53 seconds of my life wasted.

tis been a while since i last was here ~ apologies all around to the dedicated people (who prolly amount to less than 5) who do come back here, be it out of interest or boredom! a crazy 2 weeks or more have passed.. everything seems such a cinch on hindsight ~ how frustrating!

should've done study groups all year
should've read kumar & clarke
should've read up on geriatric medicine
shouldn't have done all these past papers, what a waste of time!
should've started on my notes earlier
should've moved out in our winter break
shouldn't have gone shopping @ ebay
should've spent more time with friends
shouldn't have spent all that time with friends
should've known the answer to that mcq
should've known it was ankylosing spondylosis! ARGHH

*sigh*

ah well, it's come and gone. nothing more i can do but wait to check results on blackboard on dec 13. *cross fingers and hugs a forest* in the meantime, i've been getting a taste of what it's like to bum. odd feeling really... i kinda scared myself a few days ago when i was just sittin here and saw the remote control on my desk. had a mental blank and took me literally a few seconds to figure out what it was and if you were here, you would've seen the lightbulb light up over my head with a *kaching!* as i realized that there was a big black box suspended from the wall in my room and that tvs still exist.

glad im gonna be busy again soon.. had a taste of it on saturday at T's 21st. twas a blast and was nice to be able to have some people skills albeit the alcohol.. or mebbe because of the alcohol

moving to a new dorm room. upgrading, as CK called it M's gonna be arriving soon with her cousin and that'll be a whole week of fun and catchup to look forward to *wheeee* and then i gotta pack for a pre-flight trip to syd with A before zooming off to taiwan. hopefully i can sneak in a trip to sg during the short 3 week stint so i can finaaaalllly see most of the class back there!

ooo getting excited already! and then there's x'mas. oh no, it's not about anything religious ~ god forbid! it's about the after-x'mas sales and the 75% discounts nowadays. it's about giving a better present than last year. it's about getting a better present than last year. it's about the latest goss as all the nosy parkers of the clan gather together to discuss your future and/or husband. have i mentioned that i like the modern x'mas?

where did they buy their liscence from?

so true A, so true... this would be the 2nd.. or 3rd moron today displaying their driving prowess. lucky me. i caught them all during my total time or 2 hrs on the road all day. idiot boy with his souped up mitsubishi mirage sped around weaving in and outta traffic. idiot man in his white camry decides to slowly drift towards the sidewalk doing about 40kph. oh and yesterday, this idiot car turns into my lane from a side street from the right as both me and the car behind me were happily zoomin down a knoll... ok.. so i tap my brakes. what does idiot car do?! GRIND TO A FRIGGING STANDSTILL. here's the catch.. idiot car flicks on the left indicator and just sits there waiting for 2 more cars to pass on the left lane so that it can get in there too. bloody nice of you to hold up the entire right lane mister!

anyway, back to the main story...
idiot woman shouldn't get a whole entry to herself but i'll indulge her.. and myself. what the hell is with this driving?!



wasn't like she had a huge gap to squeeeeze her oh-so-small falcon in between the car ahead of me and me. there was a split second when time slowed down and i was staring into her eyes as she sat dumbfounded behind her steering wheel as i shot daggers at her with my eyes. lady, if u wanted insurance, go claim it off someone else. geez.

happy all hallow's eve ~

· · ·

carrying on my little yearly tradition of pumpkin etching, be it pumpkins, apples.. and apparently eggplants now... i spent this afternoon thinkin up some faces. pumpkins were pathetic this year. they were way too small, way too flat and were way too little to choose from. shouldn't be complaining tho. at least woolies has some sort of pumpkin this year. i had to make do with apples last year and cut out black construction paper witches' hats for them apple-heads. anyway, here's what my eggplant turned out to look like. 'cuse his grotty teeth. he doesn't have his own toothbrush. hmmmm...what's mr. eggplant up to....

bz terrorizing the tiny pumpkin tots... AHHHHHHHH!

don't scare yourself this halloween *wink*

· · ·

we're a clinical cause of blood pressure! according to the BMJ...

A new study has shown that the presence of a medical student can increase blood pressure when measured in general practice.

BMJ 2004;329:998 (30 October)

thanks C for sharing the article with us ~

magpies are evul!

been telling everyone just that.. for the past 4 years and nobody's believed me til they've experienced an attack first-hand. and then they scream in terror. hmph.

well here's more proof on how nasty these viscously territorial birdbrains can be ~

Man fights for life after magpie attack
By Geraldine Mitchell
October 27, 2004

A MAN who crashed his bicycle after a magpie attacked him was fighting for his life in a Gippsland hospital yesterday.

He was taken to the Latrobe Regional Hospital with serious head injuries and later flown to the Alfred where he was in a critical but stable condition last night.

Police said the man fell off his bike while crossing Tom's Bridge north of Morwell about 9am.

The man, 51, told paramedics he had lost control of his bike after a magpie attacked him.

Last year, a Mildura man, 74, died after a magpie attack in which he received a serious eye injury.

Magpies swoop in spring to protect their chicks and territory, according to the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

To prevent attacks, the department suggests travelling in a group or avoiding the area. Cyclists are also urged to dismount and walk past a swoop area.

Herald Sun

nothing left..

a snippet from a budding author who decided to share part of his book...
found this, of all places, at the tibian forums of amera ~

dedicated to J.

Sitting on a cliff readying myself for the jump.

After three.

One.

Two.

Thr…

Oh, I’m sorry. Let me rewind a little and explain myself before I go.

Ah, my darling girl. Eight years together. We had gone and chosen our rings a week before, it was defiantly time to do the deed. It had been a long time coming. We had been through so much together. The rings arrived in the shop a week later, and I had to go pick them up. Everyday I received excited texts and phone calls from my significant other. Bless her. She was so excited. Of course, I was too. This was the girl I loved, and I couldn’t wish for a better person to spend the rest of my life with.

Ah, my darling girl.

The day I picked the rings up she split up with me. I wont go into details. Two days later she was moving in with another man. No explanation. Just like that. I had to figure it all out for myself.

And when I asked:

‘Are you seeing someone else?’

All I got back was:

‘Yes I am.’

Ow.

Eight years down the drain. I had no idea. Two weeks later, a good friend of mine died at a very young age.

Ow Ow Ow.

Which takes us back to the cliff edge on a warm, Spring day.

‘Three!’

I am writing this with a broken nose, four broken ribs, a broken leg, a fractured collarbone, two broken arms, one eye, a bruised banana, and a three legged dog called Jeremy.

Only joking.

Seriously, there’s more to life than jumping off a cliff. That’s the problem with jumping off cliffs, you only tend to get to do it once. There’s a lot more sounds to experience than ‘Bounce bounce splat’. There’s a lot more feelings to experience than the last ever one. There’s a lot more love to experience than the one you just lost. It’s strange. When you lose all hope, your mind is free to be how it should.

‘I don’t care about those bills, because I wont be here.’

‘I don’t care about losing a friend, because I wont be here.’

‘I don’t care about fear, because I wont be here.’

‘I don’t care about losing her, because I wont be here.’

And then everything that you have ever worried about disappears.

whoosh!

And it was at that moment, at number three, that I realised. Everything that concerns me only does so because of the way I perceive it. What does it matter if you have lost everything? You could always be dead, and then you wouldn’t care anyway.

I think

And don’t get me wrong, it really did hurt. But I’ve come to realise that life is too precious to dwell on the past. If you are still alive, the future can be an exciting prospect if you look at it that way. Out of darkness comes a light, and my light was the realisation that I, and only I, am the sole creator of everything that I will ever be. I could have blamed my other half for leaving me. I could have blamed my friend for dieing, but at the end of it all I can only blame myself for dealing with it badly. And it is our perceptions on life that cause us to act and behave in the ways that we do. Life isn’t biased; life doesn’t deal us bad hands. Only we can do that, and how we look at things pretty much determines our destiny.

I learnt the greatest lesson that day, and I have to thank everything bad that happened to me for it. Strange isn’t it?

doh!

1991: John Hunter Hospital received its first patients
~ Hunter History Highlight

The evening news has been repeating the snippet over and over on various local channels ~ the traffic accident we witnessed yesterday blocked the only road going into the John Hunter, thereby sealing off the only ambulance entrance to the hospital (who was the bright spark that decided to build a hospital with only one road leading in and outta it?! while we're onto blaming people here, who was the genius that implemented paid parking at club med?! grr), the #2 most popular hospital interns signed up to vie for, the fastest/largest regional hospital in the state. Talk about planning skills...

It took them 13 years to decide that something must be done. AFTER a semitrailer effectively plugged up the entrance. but nooooo, that wasn't the hoo-haa. it's ok that private folk aren't able to access the hospital, it's ok if the pregnant lady goes into labor cuz she can't reach the hospital, it's ok that little tommy can't get his tummy looked at and has to throw up in his mommy's car cuz she doesn't drive a big enough car with noisy sirens and flashy lights. the fuss was about how ambulances couldn't reach the emergency dept... but now they're throwing around possible solutions. *proceeds to roll eyes ...all the way to the hospital*

on a lighter note ~

happy bdae dear di! hope you had a blast!