On the third day in Cologne, it was a Sunday, which is supposedly a rest day, in Malaysian context means a day to shopping malls to have a walk around. Whereas in Cologne, we found out that over here on Sunday, it is a general rest day, the shops are all closed and and most restaurants are also closed. In the end, we had to repeatedly go back to the hostel since it was a bit to quiet in the streets. out of boredom we proposed of going to a gay and lesbian club so it wouldn’t be that awkward. We took a late snack and retested back for a brief rest before going pot again for dinner and to the pub. Alas, plansdoes not always go accordingly. We ended up touring around for the night view.
On the last day in Cologne 21.01.13, as we were done with touring the attractions, we just strolled leisurely down the streets doing some shopping along the way. I ended up buying a pair of shoes, “sorry mum and dad!!!” Later in the evening we visited a last attraction - st. Ursula church which has a room filled with bones. We then went to a Asian shop before going to the restaurant to fill our bellies before the train ride.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
Cologne 1st day
It had been a long awaited journey and trip, it all started like any other holiday ….
We left our house at 4.30am, I felt heavy hearted. This was because I could not attend the graduation of my closest group of friends here in Russia later that day, and I wasn’t able to see them one last time before they each fly back to their respective states in Malaysia.
The journey started with us leaving for Moscow but due to harsh weather conditions,we barely manage to get to the airport in time, and we were in an airport that we have not been to before. Upon arrival, we had to go through some security checks which gave us trouble and later whole going through customs we were with detained for a moment. Reasons? Unknown. Anyway after we reached here we checked into the hostel before grabbing our dinners in a restaurant nearby recommended by the receptionist. The beers served was very smooth and I could say it was one of the best beers I’ve ever tried. Dinner ended with us taking photo with the waiter serving us and a fellow guy in the dinner which was dressed up as a jester as a carnival was being held soon enough. What shocked us most was the guy in jester clothing stopped us for a moment before presenting Tabitha with a medal and the those in the house giving a round of applause. We find ourselves dumb struck but nevertheless happy.
We left our house at 4.30am, I felt heavy hearted. This was because I could not attend the graduation of my closest group of friends here in Russia later that day, and I wasn’t able to see them one last time before they each fly back to their respective states in Malaysia.
The journey started with us leaving for Moscow but due to harsh weather conditions,we barely manage to get to the airport in time, and we were in an airport that we have not been to before. Upon arrival, we had to go through some security checks which gave us trouble and later whole going through customs we were with detained for a moment. Reasons? Unknown. Anyway after we reached here we checked into the hostel before grabbing our dinners in a restaurant nearby recommended by the receptionist. The beers served was very smooth and I could say it was one of the best beers I’ve ever tried. Dinner ended with us taking photo with the waiter serving us and a fellow guy in the dinner which was dressed up as a jester as a carnival was being held soon enough. What shocked us most was the guy in jester clothing stopped us for a moment before presenting Tabitha with a medal and the those in the house giving a round of applause. We find ourselves dumb struck but nevertheless happy.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Eventful week
A lot of things have happened during the last few days. First I received a surprise message from my long lost best friend which went over to China in order to pursue his dream. Chatting with him made me remember the times we had together and how important he was to me during my high school period - that young and innocent me which used to think and hope that a friendship can last forever.
Another thing that happened this week was that my mother had a fall from the bicycle due to a black out. Fortunately, after being thoroughly examined, she was said to have suffered from the loss of consciousness due to exhaustion and thankfully that all she had was a fractured elbow. She has went through an operation and everything should be fine. It was told that she could be released from the hospital tomorrow if everything goes well.
I would like to thank those who have prayed for my mother and helped her through the ordeal. With blessings, I can only keep my fingers crossed and pray that she doesn't go through anything like this anymore.
Another thing that happened was that yesterday, me and my fellow volleyball teammates had a friendly match with our University's Russian teammates. It was like sort of a competition and we were playing our second game (the first game was held last Friday).
Due to the fact that we just came back from Malaysia and had not been training properly, I did not really expect too much from the competition but just to gain some experience and at the same time expose some of the juniors to the game play.
Though yesterday, while playing against the University's first squad, I felt a sudden high stress due to a very lousy performance on the second match. During the first match, we were sort of leading and had a good chance of winning but lost at the end. During the second match, I could not make out what came over me. I was making a lot of amateur mistakes and could not focus on what I had to do. In the end we lost the match.
After that I felt really bad and down due to the fact that I was the main reason for the downfall of our team. I became quiet and went off home a little while later. All the time keeping silence and not talking to anyone.
I seriously have to change this habit of mine.
Another thing that happened this week was that my mother had a fall from the bicycle due to a black out. Fortunately, after being thoroughly examined, she was said to have suffered from the loss of consciousness due to exhaustion and thankfully that all she had was a fractured elbow. She has went through an operation and everything should be fine. It was told that she could be released from the hospital tomorrow if everything goes well.
I would like to thank those who have prayed for my mother and helped her through the ordeal. With blessings, I can only keep my fingers crossed and pray that she doesn't go through anything like this anymore.
Another thing that happened was that yesterday, me and my fellow volleyball teammates had a friendly match with our University's Russian teammates. It was like sort of a competition and we were playing our second game (the first game was held last Friday).
Due to the fact that we just came back from Malaysia and had not been training properly, I did not really expect too much from the competition but just to gain some experience and at the same time expose some of the juniors to the game play.
Though yesterday, while playing against the University's first squad, I felt a sudden high stress due to a very lousy performance on the second match. During the first match, we were sort of leading and had a good chance of winning but lost at the end. During the second match, I could not make out what came over me. I was making a lot of amateur mistakes and could not focus on what I had to do. In the end we lost the match.
After that I felt really bad and down due to the fact that I was the main reason for the downfall of our team. I became quiet and went off home a little while later. All the time keeping silence and not talking to anyone.
I seriously have to change this habit of mine.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Lighting up lanterns
A few weeks has passed by since I flew back from my home country back to Russia in order to continue with my studies. With the passing of time, my will of studying hard and changing over a new leaf has also been dying down. Though, because I'm in the education committee for the Malaysian Student Associations, the responsibilities there has kind of forced me into doing a bit of studying. And with more time, I think the momentum will grow and the small bud will grow into a large tree.
Other than being lazy on my studies, the rest during summer has also deterred me from going to the gym for my workout sessions. In compensation, the badminton outings with my friends in Malaysia has made me regain my interest in badminton once again and with that my weekends has been filled up with sport activities for an astounding 4-6 hours on these days.
As you may have known if you follow my Facebook, in conjunction of my town's 980th Birthday, they had a lantern lighting up festival(放孔明灯）. It was the first time I had ever been able to see this up close and also got a chance to actually light one up and make a wish.
The event was planned to start at 9pm and hence we had a couple of friends come over to my house for dinner. From there on, we went to the event together. As we had quite a heavy dinner, we decided to have a walk there instead of taking public transport.
While walking there, one of our friend who went ahead to help us get the lantern called us and said that the people were already starting to light them up and asked us to quicken our footsteps. We were still about 5 minutes walk away from the point of gathering when she called.
All of a sudden, from the far side, we could see small colorful lights starting to float up the sky, lighting up the dark night skyline. The sight was just amazing to look at. With that, we hasten and willed ourselves to reach the area as quick as possible.
Though we only realize the amount of people that had gather when we began to approach the gathering point, the place was so crowded with people that I ended up my two friends that I was walking with.
When we finally meet up with our other friends, most of the by standers had already light up their lantern and there were only a few people left that were trying to light theirs up.
In order to gather up some other friends of ours, one of my friend started to wave with the lanterns on her hands, that attracted a whole herd of locals to us asking how much is the lantern for and where can they buy it.
At last, when everyone was gathered we tore out the lanterns from its plastic and prepared ourselves to let them loose.
Seeing them fly up the sky and crossing our fingers in hope that it will float up steadily and that hopefully our respective wishes will come true!!
Other than being lazy on my studies, the rest during summer has also deterred me from going to the gym for my workout sessions. In compensation, the badminton outings with my friends in Malaysia has made me regain my interest in badminton once again and with that my weekends has been filled up with sport activities for an astounding 4-6 hours on these days.
As you may have known if you follow my Facebook, in conjunction of my town's 980th Birthday, they had a lantern lighting up festival(放孔明灯）. It was the first time I had ever been able to see this up close and also got a chance to actually light one up and make a wish.
The event was planned to start at 9pm and hence we had a couple of friends come over to my house for dinner. From there on, we went to the event together. As we had quite a heavy dinner, we decided to have a walk there instead of taking public transport.
While walking there, one of our friend who went ahead to help us get the lantern called us and said that the people were already starting to light them up and asked us to quicken our footsteps. We were still about 5 minutes walk away from the point of gathering when she called.
All of a sudden, from the far side, we could see small colorful lights starting to float up the sky, lighting up the dark night skyline. The sight was just amazing to look at. With that, we hasten and willed ourselves to reach the area as quick as possible.
Though we only realize the amount of people that had gather when we began to approach the gathering point, the place was so crowded with people that I ended up my two friends that I was walking with.
When we finally meet up with our other friends, most of the by standers had already light up their lantern and there were only a few people left that were trying to light theirs up.
In order to gather up some other friends of ours, one of my friend started to wave with the lanterns on her hands, that attracted a whole herd of locals to us asking how much is the lantern for and where can they buy it.
At last, when everyone was gathered we tore out the lanterns from its plastic and prepared ourselves to let them loose.
Seeing them fly up the sky and crossing our fingers in hope that it will float up steadily and that hopefully our respective wishes will come true!!
Friday, September 14, 2012
Lengthy post
It has been quite sometime since I have uploaded a new post, with holidays and practicals taking most of my time, I could not find any spare time to take a rest and write down about the recent happenings.
Now that I am back in Russia to continue with my studies, I have more time to waste and spare so I can finally fall back and recall the sweet memories I had of this summer break.
This summer, I had to do practicals back in my home country - Malaysia. I was attached to a military hospital and I had loads of fun there. From going to lectures and learning from the doctors, and mixing around with nurses and other trainees, I really found myself enjoying my future job and my posting there.
After my posting, I had more time to go about and meet up with all those friend of mine which I have not seen in a year. Because of my hectic schedule of meeting up with all those long lost friends I spend very little time with my family, and for this I feel very very bad and also regret for not spending more time with them.
This year I also had my very first time have friends sending me off in the airport. I was so shocked and happy when my friends told me they would be sending me off. What made it even more shocking was that these friends are mostly from a group that I only meet not a month ago. I am really happy to have found this group of close friends and deeply hope that our friendship will last.
A small post on what I have been doing in Russia. Only yesterday, after a lecture I went to in the University, on the way back home, me and Tabitha found a women lying on the ground unconscious. We were a bit worried about her safety so we called the ambulance and waited patiently for it to come. What shocked me was how the team responded when they saw here. All they did was check her blood pressure and gave her some ammonia so they she would wake up. When she took a sniff of it, she only turned her head away and not wake up. They then carried her into the ambulance and sent home. From what I have seen, they do not plan on giving her any treatment. They even wanted her to go home by herself at the beginning. I guess this is because the Russian have seen way too many drunkards for their own good that they have become numb to it.
Now that I am back in Russia to continue with my studies, I have more time to waste and spare so I can finally fall back and recall the sweet memories I had of this summer break.
This summer, I had to do practicals back in my home country - Malaysia. I was attached to a military hospital and I had loads of fun there. From going to lectures and learning from the doctors, and mixing around with nurses and other trainees, I really found myself enjoying my future job and my posting there.
After my posting, I had more time to go about and meet up with all those friend of mine which I have not seen in a year. Because of my hectic schedule of meeting up with all those long lost friends I spend very little time with my family, and for this I feel very very bad and also regret for not spending more time with them.
This year I also had my very first time have friends sending me off in the airport. I was so shocked and happy when my friends told me they would be sending me off. What made it even more shocking was that these friends are mostly from a group that I only meet not a month ago. I am really happy to have found this group of close friends and deeply hope that our friendship will last.
A small post on what I have been doing in Russia. Only yesterday, after a lecture I went to in the University, on the way back home, me and Tabitha found a women lying on the ground unconscious. We were a bit worried about her safety so we called the ambulance and waited patiently for it to come. What shocked me was how the team responded when they saw here. All they did was check her blood pressure and gave her some ammonia so they she would wake up. When she took a sniff of it, she only turned her head away and not wake up. They then carried her into the ambulance and sent home. From what I have seen, they do not plan on giving her any treatment. They even wanted her to go home by herself at the beginning. I guess this is because the Russian have seen way too many drunkards for their own good that they have become numb to it.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
One hell of a scare
As you know, I have been doing my practicals or what the locals call elective posting in the hospital lately. While I was there, I did a full blood test. What I did not prepare myself was when the results came back with me being detected to have Hepatitis B antigen.
A short note on what is Hepatitis B - It is a virus that attacks your liver causing slow degradation to the organ and lastly liver failure which can be fatal. It is transmittable via blood products, sexual intercourse and hence can affect one's sexual life and also career for someone who works as a doctor or nurse (which I am). Hepatitis B antigen detected means that there is a high chance that the virus has invaded into your body. Whether it has started attacking your liver or is remaining as a carrier is not certain.
Hence, when I received the results I was really afraid. Anyway, upon returning home yesterday, I told my mum which as expected freaked out (but worse than how I thought she would) and rushed me to the nearest lab to get my blood retested. That night, I think all 3 of us(me, my dad and mum) did not have a good nights rest due to the shocking news.
The next day, I was still anxious to get the results and was afraid of what the outcome might be. Never in my life have I be so afraid of getting a single lab results. I now understand what those people who were told some serious illness such as HIV or Cancer feel like.
I came back earlier today because my ride had something coming up and had to leave before the time was up. I called my mum and asked her if she has taken the report (it was supposed to be out at 12noon and I called her at 1pm). She said "the report is out but your dad didn't want me to go get the test results by myself, he asked me to wait for you." I told my mum I would go get it myself and if they require the receipt I will ask her to come then.
Throughout the walk to the lab to get my results, my heart rate spiked and my adrenaline was pumping vigorously in order to anticipate the shock I might have to face upon receiving the results.
When I finally got there and the results given to me, a wave of relief washed over me upon seeing the words "NOT DETECTED". I couldn't thank God or whoever is up there more for it.
A short note on what is Hepatitis B - It is a virus that attacks your liver causing slow degradation to the organ and lastly liver failure which can be fatal. It is transmittable via blood products, sexual intercourse and hence can affect one's sexual life and also career for someone who works as a doctor or nurse (which I am). Hepatitis B antigen detected means that there is a high chance that the virus has invaded into your body. Whether it has started attacking your liver or is remaining as a carrier is not certain.
Hence, when I received the results I was really afraid. Anyway, upon returning home yesterday, I told my mum which as expected freaked out (but worse than how I thought she would) and rushed me to the nearest lab to get my blood retested. That night, I think all 3 of us(me, my dad and mum) did not have a good nights rest due to the shocking news.
The next day, I was still anxious to get the results and was afraid of what the outcome might be. Never in my life have I be so afraid of getting a single lab results. I now understand what those people who were told some serious illness such as HIV or Cancer feel like.
I came back earlier today because my ride had something coming up and had to leave before the time was up. I called my mum and asked her if she has taken the report (it was supposed to be out at 12noon and I called her at 1pm). She said "the report is out but your dad didn't want me to go get the test results by myself, he asked me to wait for you." I told my mum I would go get it myself and if they require the receipt I will ask her to come then.
Throughout the walk to the lab to get my results, my heart rate spiked and my adrenaline was pumping vigorously in order to anticipate the shock I might have to face upon receiving the results.
When I finally got there and the results given to me, a wave of relief washed over me upon seeing the words "NOT DETECTED". I couldn't thank God or whoever is up there more for it.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
OT
It has been more than a week since I started my elective posting in HATTM. For me, being here was very fun(though of course there were dull moments). I was first sent to the A&E department where I got to handle a lot of different cases and experience the way Malaysian health providers cope with them.
Further down the week, I was sent to the department of my choice -O&G. Here I was tagging with a doctor and learned the ways of basic clinical handling of outpatients. Also here, I attended a seminar that was given by a drug company which was promoting their drug to the hospital and only yesterday, another company which sent one of their staff over to promote their scar healing drug(for cesarean section scar wound healing) was being pushed away by the doctor as she had a busy morning and had not taken her lunch despite it turning to 3pm soon. I then told her about my burn wound and scar and then got some samples to apply on my wound. Hopefully, it will all turn out good.
Today, I was able to go into the Operating Theater and there I saw a few operations one of which was a C-section. And later on, I managed to witness a natural delivery.
All in all, I really enjoyed my time in the hospital learning stuff. Hopefully, with the passing of time, I would make a good doctor in the near future.
Further down the week, I was sent to the department of my choice -O&G. Here I was tagging with a doctor and learned the ways of basic clinical handling of outpatients. Also here, I attended a seminar that was given by a drug company which was promoting their drug to the hospital and only yesterday, another company which sent one of their staff over to promote their scar healing drug(for cesarean section scar wound healing) was being pushed away by the doctor as she had a busy morning and had not taken her lunch despite it turning to 3pm soon. I then told her about my burn wound and scar and then got some samples to apply on my wound. Hopefully, it will all turn out good.
Today, I was able to go into the Operating Theater and there I saw a few operations one of which was a C-section. And later on, I managed to witness a natural delivery.
All in all, I really enjoyed my time in the hospital learning stuff. Hopefully, with the passing of time, I would make a good doctor in the near future.
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