H&N New Life #2

I was so excited about my new life I went for it with my dad on the next working day. Initially I didn't like the idea of having my dad following me since I thought I should be mature enough to be independent and responsible for my working life. However he helped me so much I don't think I could have settled with a place to stay and have all my basic needs satisfied without him.

So after reporting for duty at the hospital, filling tonnes of forms till my hands were shaking, I finally got to start my first station in the hospital's many pharmacies. At first when I entered the department, I knew nothing, just blindly following and listening to orders from a senior who was there shortly before. She was really helpful and patient in explaining the basics about us provisional pharmacists. Definitely wouldn't understand anything without her "translation".

According to my other peers, I have been working in what they may argue as the easiest and most boring station of all *that’s what I have heard*. Despite that I am still experiencing a lot of firsts. First time using my punch card, first time processing procedural forms, first time applying for leave, first time getting called doctor despite not being one and first time getting scolded by my boss, some can be exciting while others can be traumatising. I am still learning to cope with all these new input for now, hopefully I get familiar with my colleagues and work place, take everything positively one step at a time.

lalanandaFRY
16/1/13

H&N New Life #1

It is times like this when I think to myself, am I ready?

I am sitting in a vast empty room reminiscing the changes around me as I type this post. For the past few weeks, so many things are going on at the same time I actually have no idea where to start. The title actually sums it up quite well, I am starting a new life. After close to 17 years of formal education, it is finally time to enter a new phase of life, the working life. To those already working, this may not seem like an issue worth talking about, but it is to me at this moment.

Almost a month ago, I was jobless, aimless and uncertain about the prospect of earning my first paycheck. After applying to be a PRP at the Ministry of Health in October, I have heard of rumours spreading around that the government postings were distributed in batches. Some say there were only two batches per year and that if we miss any batch, we would have to wait another 6 months for the next batch. So since the previous batch I knew was in late August, I didn't expect to be posted until after Chinese New Year.

Then came a Facebook message from a friend who applied with me nudging me to check with the Ministry for my posting details. I was puzzled when I saw that message. I pondered silently for a while in front of my computer, contemplating about the possibility that I would be working very soon, ending my boring daily life then. Surprisingly I actually enjoyed those aimless days, waking up for lunch, surfing the internet randomly, checking Facebook status every 5 minutes and spending a lot of precious time with my parents. *sob sob*

Skipping to two weeks ago, I was certain I got posted to Pahang and it was down to two possible hospitals, which the state health department took forever to decide which to give. *possibly due to the flooding at Kuantan and that they were moving to a new office* My parents and I chose to visit my grandma and aunts in Penang before I start work. Somehow everyone there were hyped as well, making me check my posting status like a pest everyday. As soon as I returned from Penang, I received a call to inform me that I got posted to HTAA, Kuantan.

While packing my luggage in my room, I had mixed feelings about getting into a new phase in life. On one hand I was very excited to know that my life had a purpose and I am not wasting precious time idling at home anymore. But on the other hand, I was terrified and a bit sad. I felt scared because I had no idea what to expect going alone to a foreign place to work, not knowing what I would be doing in my job, who I would be working for and where I would be staying. For the second time of my life, I was leaving home for a long time, this time not in the company of my batchmates but just me alone. Like the first time, it was sad to be away from my parents again. I think it is these times when I feel their love for me the most and realised how much I love to be loved.

New life begins in the next post...

lalanandaFRY

10/1/13

p.s.: I didn't know how to add many pictures to fit the mood I was in, it was all about my feeling.

Retrospectacular 2012

Hey kids, "Retrospectacular" is not a real word, so don't use it in your essay in school.

ret·ro·spec·tac·u·lar [re-truh-spek-tak-yuh-ler]
adjective
1. to refer; to contemplate; to look back on dramatically daring or thrilling event: a retrospectacular concert.
noun
2. contemplation of the past impressive, large-scale display: another retrospectacular.

Usually when it comes to the end of a year, most of us tend to form a list of new year resolutions. Looking at my past resolutions, I can only make one conclusion: IT DOESN'T WORK! Last year when I was in Glasgow, I made a resolution to lose 5kg over 2012 after losing around 5kg in the first six months away from home. What's amazing was that I lost 5kg without doing any vigorous exercises or follow any strict diet plans. The only change was that I had to walk regularly to buy groceries and to lectures instead of travelling by car in Malaysia. I felt much healthier that time and was motivated to start a more intensive dieting and more frequent cardio exercise routine. So for the first 3-4 months of this year, I ate less fatty foods, more protein and did some basic exercise on a daily basis. To my surprise, I did not lose any weight whatsoever!!!

This was my standard lunch, one chicken thigh with soup.

I prefer a contemplation, a retrospectacular to looks at my past year. So only spectacular things will be in this list to keep it short and hopefully... sweet.

2012: Year of Culinary Experiments

In Glasgow, I had the freedom in the kitchen to make whatever I wanted to make, whenever I want to make. Of course most of the time we cook our regular meals there, but sometimes when I cook meals for myself, I tend to try out some of my own little experiments such as cooking Bolognese spaghetti with blue cheese, making Char Siew and Siew Yoke, mixing my own coleslaw and packing blue cheese and chicken breast sandwich. I found that many people think cooking is a chore, at times it can be enjoyable, especially knowing that there will be a tasty product at the end to satisfy my appetite.

2012: Year of Travelling

Sampling of places I've visited in 2012

I have visited 10 countries in my life so far, 5 of which I visited in 2012. I think I enjoy travelling a lot, probably more than I thought I would. You can read about them from posts under my #WalkALOT label. Every place I visited was an interesting story on its own that could be shared with my children the way my dad shared his Europe travel stories with me.

Places I visited this year are:

1. Edinburgh, Scotland.	8. Zurich, Switzerland.
2. St Andrews, Scotland.	9. Interlaken, Switzerland.
3. London, England.	10. Innsbruck, Austria.
4. Dundee, Scotland.	11. Munich, Germany.
5. Isle of Skye, Scotland.	12. Linz, Austria.
6. Glencoe, Scotland.	13. Vienna, Austria.
7. Cologne, Germany.	14. Paris, France.

Among those, I think my favourites are Isle of Skye, London and Interlaken. Isle of Skye and Interlaken for their breathtaking views and London for the atmosphere.

Isle of Skye gets my Number One recommendation!!!

2012: Year of Stress

Battleground!

I am sure everyone should recognize that the final year in university life is always the craziest, most hectic and chaotic time in study life. My study desk was like a place where I eat, sleep, study and mourn over the tonnes of material needed to study. In addition to the usual final exams were those mandatory essays, tests and presentations which also contributed to my boiling stress level. But all that effort paid off with the next...

2012: Year of Graduation

In kilt!!! 

After studying for close to four year of tertiary education, I have finally graduated with Master of Pharmacy. So now I am going to be an official working man already!!! One sad thing is that after studying for four years with the same group of friends, we have formed a strong bond which will soon be torn apart when all of us get posted to hospital all over the country. I am glad I had a bunch of great comrades who were all pursuing the same challenging goal.

Since I am starting a new phase of my life next year, I predict it will be even more spectacular... so may you have a

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013

lalanandaFRY
31/12/12

Kampung Dumbarton

Around Christmas time over a year ago, most of my housemates were going on holiday tours around Europe while only a hand full of us remained in Glasgow. I actually wanted to go for a Christmas holiday as well but I had to deal with my research project while everyone else was having fun. I can't complain since I had been relaxing for too long while others rush to complete their lab sessions. Now back to the main title which is my "Christmas trip". Dumbarton is a little town/village around 30km away from Glasgow. It may not sound far but the effort to get to the clinic there was ridiculously tedious. Why would I travel to Dumbarton if not to complete my research?

It was 7am on a Monday morning. There was no lecture, no lab sessions, no reason for anyone else to wake up at that time. I got ready for my journey with my laptop in my bag and left around 7.45am to Queen Street Station to catch the 8am train to Dumbarton Central. It was -4ºC outside when I left and I had to walk really slowly to avoid slipping on black ice *it snowed the night before*. That was the reason why I dislike snow, the fact that it will melt and refreeze into black ice, the smoothest and most dangerous surface to walk on.

The train ride to Dumbarton was just delightful. It was around 30 minutes of snow capped hills and a panoramic view of Clyde River, I enjoyed the whole journey. Throughout the journey, I had my earphone on blasting with my favourite KPop playlist. There were two train stations in Dumbarton, Dumbarton Central and Dumbarton East. At that time I only knew about the central station and already planned to alight when they announced "Dumbarton". Guess what? Dumbarton East was the station before Dumbarton Central. So the moment I heard "Dumbar..." while the music was still playing in my ear, I got off the train and realized I had no idea where I was.

It was 8.35am and I was totally stunned and worried that I won't be able to make it to the Hartfield Clinic in time for my 9am appointment with the local pharmacist. The next train was not going to arrive until 8.55am, so I would have to find my way to the clinic on foot. The station was totally deserted. There wasn't even a ticket counter because the station only had those sophisticated electronic ticketing machines. As crazy as it sounds, I walked out of the station, picked a random direction and hoped to get help from somebody nearby. Dumbarton has got to be the emptiest town I have ever been. How was it possible to walk for 5 minutes near the town center and not see a single person or vehicle?

I finally found a 24 hour convenient store after 10 minutes. The shopkeeper was very helpful and guided me to the clinic. The weirdest thing was that I had been walking in the correct direction all the while and I was almost there. It was really just a fluke!!! In fact I reached Hartfield Clinic at 8.50am and the pharmacist I was supposed to meet wasn't even there yet. Our meeting was simple and short. Then when I was about to leave, I asked her whether there were any tourist attractions in the area. She was a little dumbfounded by my question, probably because Dumbarton had little to no tourists. However after asking several other staffs, they recommended two places to visit, Dumbarton Castle and the Scottish Maritime Museum a.k.a. Denny's Tank.

The weather that day was very bad, it was raining while I was walking to the museum. Later it started snowing for a short while and then rained again when I was walking to Dumbarton Castle. The maritime museum, known by the locals as Denny's Tank, was built on the site of the old maritime research tank where ship builders test their ship designs with miniatures in the long water tank, scaled down to roughly 1/100 to gauge efficiency of various propulsion methods. William Denny and Brothers Limited, the company which operated in Dumbarton around the mid-19th century was famous for supplying clipper ships to many countries, some still used in New Zealand and around Europe. The most notable ship built is the Cutty Sark, now a museum ship in Greenwich, London. The museum was very informative and interesting, but it is a waste since I heard from the tour guide that very few tourist visit Dumbarton and even fewer visit the museum. So if anyone decide to visit Dumbarton or the nearby Loch Lomond, this place is definitely recommended.

On the contrary, Dumbarton Castle was a total disappointment. To be honest, I do not really enjoy castles very much, but I still think some majestic castles like Edinburgh Castle, Eilean Donan Castle and Stirling Castle are worth visiting. Dumbarton Castle was built on a huge rock known as Dumbarton Rock facing the Clyde River. It was said that it is one of the oldest stronghold in Great Britain, so it has a long history dating back to the 5th century. That was as interesting as it gets! To make things worst, a huge part of the castle was closed for restoration and repair works, so the £3.60 was a total rip-off!

I traveled back to Glasgow from Dumbarton Central around noon.

That's it! I did return to Dumbarton a month later but that time was strictly for my research follow-up only. Even a short trip like that could turn out to be a crazy adventure to me. By the way, I would like to wish everyone

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and

HAPPY NEW YEAR

and

We survived the end of the world!!!

lalanandaFRY

24/12/12

H&N KaBoom!!!!

Remember this scene from the beginning of Star Trek VI.

I watched several documentaries of this crazy 2012 phenomenon a long long time ago when it was the hottest topic around, I think it was 2009 then. The Roland Emmerich movie was big in the cinemas too and Ivan and I managed to get free tickets to watch it weeks after it was released. Even then the cineplex hall was filled to the brim and both of us had to sit at the first few rows, bending our necks upwards for more than 2 hours.

Come to think of it, the movie is actually very entertaining. Obviously it was not an accurate prediction of things that could actually happen, but at least it shows a variety of human responses to a devastating situation. Some times when I read the news about people stocking up food in their shelters to prepare for D-day, I think to myself, if D-day is true, what difference can that make if the world is going to end? Do you think hiding in an underground shed with a bunch of supplies can prevent obliteration? Nice try!!! In fact over the course of history, Eschatology, the study of the end is common among religions. But in my opinion, why bother?

How cool would that be?

Since we are "going to die" anyway, I was thinking of cool ways to go. Would it be nice if destruction could be cool like in movies? There is this Japanese movie from 1968 called 怪獣総進撃, known in English as Destroy All Monsters which has all the famous kaiju monsters mashed into a huge brawl. Although the world didn't end in the movie, I am sure these guys would be more than capable of causing that if they wanted to. Hollywood movies in the past have been showing many scenarios that could lead to D-day too, remember Armageddon or The Core?

Can you tell I am fan of that Bruce Willis movie?

I almost forget the Terminator scenario. It would be crappy for us if we survive Skynet's nuclear escapade, but knowing that John Connor will be there somewhere in Los Angeles sending his father back to fight Arnold, then sending Arnold back to fight that guy from X-Files, then his wife sending Arnold back to fight that girl from Bloodrayne, and somehow look a lot like Bruce Wayne... That would be the coolest thing to ever happen!!! And yes, I am a Terminator fanatic too!!!

Who cares whether the world ends tomorrow?

As long as we have lived our lives fruitfully, we shouldn't have any regrets. Just look forward and come what may!!!

lalanandaFRY
20/12/12

P.S.: I do not believe in this D-day based on Mayan calendar "shenanigan", so prove me wrong!
P.P.S.: Prepare for Facebook and Twitter to explode with #endoftheworld updates.
P.P.P.S.: Are you still reading this?