Refreshed, Relaxed and Rejuvenated!

I just got back from my vacation with hubby last week. This is our 2nd time just the both of us going overseas. It's so nice getting to spend an entire week with hubby relaxing, eating, sight-seeing and sleeping & waking up next to him :) yeah- I'm still staying and working 2 and 1/2 hours away from him. Besides my 10 day leave that I took for my wedding and the almost 1 week for CNY break last year, I only get to spend a weekend at the most with him. Thus, this holiday was a welcomed break for both of us! And the amount of pictures that we took were more than 3 gigabytes of memory card (including videos). Our pictures can be viewed at this website- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12632&l=1a097&id=712263026. Facebook is great to use as it's pretty easy to uplaod lots of photos at one go (60 per album actually) and you can rotate your photos while uploading! Highly recommended! But unfortunately- the photos will be slowly added whenever we're free.

'CETAK ROMPAK!'

Actually, I'm not guilty of actually 'pirating' (if there is such a word) anything. I just happened to visit a few of my favourite blogs (by my friends) and experimented and lo and behold I added lots of cartoons and pics to my blog. Also just added a counter stats that records how many hits my site has! This is just for fun as I was wondering how many people excluding hubby and I who visit my blog. All this is understandably new and exciting for me as I'm really a computer or internet idiot!

Anybody there?

Hello! Is there anybody there? I wonder if anyone reads my blog or my rantings as M.M so aptly calls her blog. It's just an avenue for me to vent out my frustrations, thoughts, feelings etc. But I still cannot share my deepest darkest secrets as it's not entirely private either. It's been awhile since I've written in my diary ever since I started penning (or rather typing) my thoughts in this blog. Yes, for your information I have kept a diary since I was in Secondary school. I'd write everything that happened to me and even about all the crushes that I used to have!:P It was my secret best friend. I still keep it and if ever I have to move house I do not know if I can bear to part with it. Yup that's one diary a year so I have collected a boxful by now!

Mini vegetable plot

Below are two pics of my housemate's mini vegetable garden which was started about ?2 months ago. I managed to taste the fruits of her labour a few days ago when she harvested and cooked her vegetables- 'fan shee yip', 'kau choy' ommelette, kangkung, and 2 other green vege. We're now waiting for her tomatoes and chili padi to bear fruit...It was great tasting literally home grown food and i bet the satisfaction and happiness derived from growing her own vegetables must have been greater for her. As for me, looking at the plot of land being put to good use after years of just bearing grass and weeds is certainly something that i'll never forget.
The area behind (where the white wall is) is where our cars are parked...The cobra has also been spotted by my housemate nearby this area...Watch out if you ever come to visit me!

Dead snake found!

I was walking back to my quarters which is the 3rd block when i came across this at the block in front of mine... someone or something had killed the snake...Unfortunately it's not the cobra that has been lurking around my quarters...Yikes, are there that many reptiles here?!! Someone daring enough should set up traps here and sell them to the Chinese shops which serve these exotic creatures on their menu ! :P They's be killing 2 birds with 1 stone- helping us get rid of these dangerous snakes and getting a a handsome sum of money at the same time. Any volunteer?.......

Pictures galore from Singapore

A Human Statue at the Beauty Exhibition at the Asian Civilisations Museum

The first Duckie to win the Million Dollar Singapore Duck Race

At the Cavanagh Bridge leading to the Asian Civilisation Museum from Raffles MRT

More pictures

Oh no! Did I just eat this croc's tail?? Nah!! This one is for display only!

Above: A plate of ants and scorpions on display at vivo city chinese restaurant. Unfortunately, I had lacked the courage to try the ants :P.

Below: On display as well is the penis of an ox (including the internal part thus the longer length!) The shorter one id the penis of a deer. This was displayed at the herbal medicine counter at the same restaurant (which is at the same level as the 'park' ie highest floor). And no...I do not even want to think of eating this. Croc's tail and baby scorpion are all that I will try.

Roaches, I presume. This was also on display in the restaurant's glass cupboard. Yuck!! I will never eat this. Not even for Fear Factor unless of course they're willing to pay me RM 4 digits :) and they'd better be dead first!

For thy viewing pleasure

Clockwise from left to right: Exotic dishes ate at a restaurant in Vivo City, S'pore: Crocodile's tail- tasted a bit like pork and pork fat; Fried Baby scorpion on tofu- this tasted like crispy fried anchovy! I wouldn't have thought of eating them if it were't for the bravery of my sister-in-law who ordered these 2 dishes!! :P

A Day To Unwind...

It has been a very hectic week as I was on-call for 3 days. I really feel the effect of age catching up on me as 4 years ago when I first started working, I was able to do 'EOD' (every other day) calls for 3 months and still survive. However, even doing 2 EOD calls in a row now leaves me feeling so tired and lazy. This is going to worsen come Raya holidays as my colleague and I who don't celebrate Raya have been put on EOD calls for a total of 6 days! Now, this is no easy feat as everyone who has been working in Diamond Bay Hospital knows how heavy the workload gets around the festivity period especially Raya. Everyone from around the country seems to 'balik kampung' here and its surrounding areas. Sigh!! Guess you'll definitely not hear from me then! Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining how unfair it is as during Christmas and CNY, I'll be taking a long break too if there's enough man-power! :)

The good news is that in early November my hubby and I will be going for our 1st trip overseas (not counting our honeymoon in Maldives!). A short one but nevertheless a holiday.We really need to get away from it all and hopefully get some much needed rest. I'm feeling kinda burnt out already although I've been working for only almost 4 1/2 years now.

Sigh, I've a presentation to do which is due in 1-2 weeks time and I've been procrastinating for the past 1 week but it feels like a sin to start on it today! So, maybe, just maybe I'll get going tomorrow! " Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today" is not going to be practised today. I had a good snooze of 5 hours after a tiring and almost sleepless night...Feeling so lazy right now and I've just finished watching 3 1-hour shows which I've recorded over the TV (not Astro!) while I was working. Fast-forwarding the ads make the shows much shorter and easier to watch instead of being disrupted every 10 mins with a 5 minute commercial especially on 8TV and NTV7. Nevertheless, these 2 channels are my favourite so what the heck! Right now, I'm into Bones (season 2), One Tree Hill, Grey's Anatomy( ending soon), Ghost Whisperer, and Healing Hands III, the Cantonese serial which makes life as a doctor so unbelievably free!

Delicious salted-egg fried crabs at Diamond Bay

If you know my family and I well enough, you'd know that we rarely eat seafood that is high in cholesterol ie. crabs, prawns, squids, oysters etc. However, on the rare occasion that we do we have tried the salted-egg fried crabs ('Hum Tan Hai'- in Cantonese) in 2 shops in Teluk Gong, Banting. The dish was nothing to shout about. In Diamond Bay where I work, a colleague of mine recommended a shop that served good salted-egg fried crabs but alas it was a big let-down for me. So i decided to go with my hubby ( who loves seafood just like his family) to another shop called 'Poh Loong' and lo and behold the crabs were to die for! In fact it was so good that we went there twice in a month! This picture was taken on 30/7/07 the 1st time we went we ate 1 kg of crabs between us and the 2nd time was in late August to celebrate hubby's birthday but this time we went with my housemate as well to reduce the high cholesterol intake guilt. I actually spent alot of time licking the shells and cracking open the crabshell to get at its delicious tasting meat as the gravy was cooked just right- not too dry or soggy. ( Actually I'm the kind of person who's too lazy and lacks the patience to eat prawns and crabs as it involves meticulously removing the shell and dear kind hubby would do this for me ! ) :p So, you can imagine how tasty this dish was to me! The popularity of this dish and the restaurant was also reflected by the number of people eating there ( people came by the car loads especially on weekends) and nearly every table ordered crab. If you love seafood, come on down to Diamond Bay (Teluk Intan @ Teluk Anson) and I'll bring you to savour a delicious seafood meal! :)

Pros and Cons of having an almost-Merdeka baby Hubby

My hubby's was born just short of a day from the nation celebrating it's 20th Independence Day! This is good as we usually manage to celebrate it together in view of the public holiday the next day. Bad as this time round, what with the mega celebrations the country was throwing for her 50th Independence Day,we'd to pre-pone his birthday do a day earlier to avoid getting caught up in all the traffic jam everywhere. And it was a blessing in disguise as we went to a jazz club (which we recently discovered after some friends recommended it to me) in the heart of KL- No Black Tie at Jalan Mesui, KL. The front door of the club was an unassuming wooden 'door' which looked like a wall! The jazz performances including the vocalist, pianist and saxophonist were out of this world!! Highly recommended if jazz is your cup of tea :)

Speaking of our country's 50th Independence Day, my father-in-law was very patriotic (as i do not recall seeing the Malaysian flag displayed at his house since i've known him - which is one decade plus!) and he proudly flew the flag at our house :) My hubby and I being avid amateur photographers and bloggers decided to take photos of 'Bendera Malaysia Berkibar-kibar di Angkasa' concept and spent 1/2 hour under the hot sun just to take that perfect picture. I ended up getting a bit of a natural blush in the cheeks after that!

This picture was snapped while we were out basking in the hot sun trying to take the Malaysian flag flying .If you notice and strain your eyes carefully there are 2 dots in the sky which are 2 helicopters flying pass for the Merdeka Day rehersal.In the background is another flag flying from a neighbour's house.

Mini Zoo at Diamond Bay Hospital

If you observe very closely, you will find the 2 hornbills (seen as dark shadows) at the top half of the picture near the bunch of red berry-like fruits. Sorry to say I still have not learnt how to add arrows to the pic !

One wildlife seen here in Diamond Bay Hospital is the elegant and beautiful Hornbill. There are 2 of them- a pair, I'd like to think. They love to rest on my colleague's car and also perch on the tree next to the hospital building. There hornbills in the wild are even bigger than those I've seen at the zoo! :P I've taken their photos using my handphone but do forgive me as it's not clear.

It was 1.15 pm. My housemate and I had just got back from lunch today.I was in my room when suddenly I heard a knock on my door. It was my housemate. With her face full of distraught she told me that Mr./ Mrs Black aka Cobra had resurfaced again...in the hole near the drain just outside our unit. (Sigh- we stay on the ground floor unfortunately.) Alas! We thought that after not seeing it for the past few months we thought it had found greener pastures or rather soil. Yes, this is the second time that we've encountered Mr/Mrs Black in the past 4 years that I've been here. But not the second time for many other of my colleagues here. Anyway, we quickly called the operator who contacted the fire brigade who arrived 10 minutes later. However, as usual, Mr./Mrs. Black had slithered back into the hole leading into the ground under our house.

We've also seen a few iguanas and monitor lizards. One was so big ( maybe around 1 foot long which we just spotted today after returining from our lunch) that if you just saw it's head and neck you it would look like an otter!! :P Too bad it 'ran' away before I could take its picture as evidence!

Yes, yes. I did say that I was not supposed to blog anymore until my exams are over but I couldn't help it...I'm getting more and more addicted to blogging. And as I've mentioned earlier, it's an excuse to take a breather from studying!

'Early' morning blues

It's now 0120H .... 24/8/07... I'm so used to writing the time in the 24 hours format as it's required in my job to do so (i think it's for medicolegal purpose). Anyway, what in the world am I doing being awake at this unearthly hour?? I'm actually working- on call. Trying to study as well but looks like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Instead, I'm doing what I'm not supposed to be doing ie surfing the internet. It's just an excuse for me not to study :P

I've never surfed so much internet in my past 28 years of life as compared to this past 1 year !! Reason being I did not have much access to it and the workplace only provided 24- hour internet access which was really accessible to us a few months ago ie putting it in certain wards instead of at the library only which operates during office hours only, of course! So whenever I'm free I can connect with the outside world! Never knew the wonders of friendster, messenger, internet radio and online newspaper reading until recently. My housemate had bought this cable thingy and manged to connect my other housemate's streamyx to us as well :)

Internet radio- another newly discovered pastime. I love listening to live365.com. It used to be called 202fm which was introduced to me by my hubby. This radio station boasts of having 10,000 stations with 260 genres!! WOW! I have tuned in to 'Slow.FM Best love songs, SEASCAPES, Angel Radio Miami etc and have found them to be pretty good (if you're a fan of slow songs, easy listening, jazz and instrumental music like me!).

Well, I'd better hit the books again. I'll continue blogging when I'm back...taking a 2 week 'break' from the internet/civilization! Ciao!

Happy 50th Independence Day, MALAYSIA!!

AND

Happy and Blessed Birthday to my dearest Hubby!! (' ',)
(He was born just one day before Merdeka Day!)

Back to KL.............030807 at 2250 Hours

My hubby has been transferred back to KL! Hallelujah!! :) i thought that government servants get transferred alot but the private sector seems to do it too! i'm praying hard this time that it'll be permanent. Really difficult for me to ask for a transfer when half the time i don't know where my other half will be.

Now that he's transferred back to KL, i on the other hand can't put off my transfer anymore. So, maybe i'll apply at the end of the year... It's complicated for me... If i apply without getting some paper qualifications for the specialty that i'm interested in, they would most likely send me to a department that's short of staff, which may be all other specialties other than the one i'm interested in... Which specialty, you may ask? Paediatrics! Why? That's the million dollar question many ask. And the answer is pretty simple. Children usually don't complain much. And they're straight to the point and won't make up stories, usually. Unlike we, adults who complain about every ache and pain and problem under the sun (no offense meant!). And it's really great joy to see the baby you helped become better discharged home well after a stormy period in the ward. They're real fighters! Even when you think all hope is lost, they surprise you and make a remarkable comeback! :)

Another important factor is that i've grown very comfortable here in Diamond Bay. No traffic jam, and no traffic jam, and ...... no traffic jam, cheaper food, very friendly staff...no traffic jam. It's been slightly more than 4 years since i 1st step foot here. Though i must admit, it's getting harder everyday to think of what to eat for lunch or dinner as there are only so many shops in this town that serves decent food at decent prices. And the problem is that the highlight of the day means a trip to Fajar now called The Store or a meal at Pizza Hut!

well, that's enough rambling for one night! Ciao!!

pictures, pictures, pictures!

oopsss... i do not know how to rotate the pic...so u'll have to tilt your head sideways for a better view! :P

view of bathtub, shower area and sink with mini TV at KL Hilton...

Has it been a year already?

I just celebrated my 1 year wedding anniversary a month ago... spent a night at kl hilton drinking champagne and dancing the night away til my high heel shoe broke!! it was expensive ( i mean the room and champagne) but a relaxing time spent with my better half :)