Updates

Hi to all, 

How is everyone? Hope weekend brings only joy to everyone's life.

Okkkaaay...

I finished one month placement in a block called Student Selected Block (SSB).

Glad that I started with SSB first (i mean if say for example I were to start straight to hospital placement with a surgeon- which will definately crush my world and make me miserable). 

During SSB I had chance to laze around (like seriously) and eased myself in a very relax and slow-mo way into learning atmosphere (remember that by the time final year started I had NOT done any serious reading -on medicine and surgery- for at least 5 months: yeah- all due to short project, big project and summer holiday). so phew!

The essence of SSB is for students to do as much as (or as little as- like me- BAD!!!) they like to gain insights into the medical world. Sound cliche I know, but we are talking business here man! There were compulsory sessions to revise skills (which was an utter waste of time me thinks because we all fecking know already ALL the bloody skills). Then there were human simulation sessions (SIMs) that were exciting at times and got stressful at the others. In SIMs, students were asked to managed a dummy for various emergency situation. The SIMs can speak, blink his eyes, has circulating blood, receive IV drugs n fluids and for f*** sake has a cardiac arrest!!! 

On top of all that, we had to do compulsory sign-ups fo career taster (read: spend a day or half a day with a consultant asking them a lot of questions about their specialty and hopefully taste what the specialty can offer). I was personally frustrated that specialty like genetics and hematology are not included in the list. Instead we had this long list of rubbish. And due to compulsory nature of having to do at least one career taster per week, reluctantly I had to sign-up for the rubbish ones (you can choose, but the choices are very limited, and all the interesting ones- I know how roughly the specialty works as I had spent time in doing projects- like oncology etc). Neurophysiology- wtf? Plastic surgery. At least now I know for certain that I wont ever choose to specialize in either  of them. 

If there was one good thing that come out of the career taster rubbishness; it'll be spending a morning with a newly appointed, not to mention super cute, Anaesthetist. He is so charming, its untrue. Seriously, I swooned and drooled. So bad, p53. But hey ho, anaesthetics is again NOT an area of interest. Radiology, however, seem promising (never thought that it'll be!) so I will definately consider it in case of me being complacent and as lazy as I am right now comes 5 years time. 

So that's roughly an SSB block in smallcity's base hospital. I heard in other base hospitals, they hardly have anything (what? two weeks of nothingness?) and close to 200 students were placed at this tertiary cancer centre of excellence. Dont know which one is better, our SSB or theirs. I still choose our SSB despite its utter crappyness over complete nothingness that will only send me straight to depression-land. 

Ok guys, weather is nice. I'm gonna go out and soak some sun and probably hit on some guys. Whoops.

Ps: Eid celebration program is in place. Whoops whoops... I baked some cookies last nite and managed to find matching scarf and shoes for my eid dress the weekend before. And now, who should I pick to be my arm candy (read: date) for the big kick ass eid celebration party in BIGCITY?

Blogging so far

I just realized two things about this blog:

i) I didnt have any entry in August. Explanation: was traveling for the whole month!

ii) I went pass my 100th entry mark and I didnt notice it. Explanation: Just the kind of thing that I didnt realize unless someone mention it to me.

HIV

I think somewhere previously I had mentioned that HIV is one of my favourite viruses (reason: its clever, living intracellularly crippling the immune system insiduously, yeay!). Actually world will be a better place without it, seriously we are better off without this dangerous retrovirus.

FACT: More than 30 million people worldwide are now infected with HIV. That's alot! -Considering that there are a lot more undiagnosed cases. 

Speaking of which, mom and dad are worried that I'll be going to Africa soon (for electives). I am not. Well, at least yet. 

PS: Finally, a medically related entry! Ha. You guys will be pleased to hear that revision has started for (poor?) me albeit very slowly (escargot or tortoise like speed) 

How much sex is enough?

"For me? Oh, God. My idea of the perfect life would be if we just stayed in bed all time. We could make love more or less continuously, only get up to bring in supplies, you know, fresh water and fruit to prevent scurvy, and make occasional trips to the bathroom to shave before diving back into bed. And once in a while we could change the sheets. And go to the movies to prevent bedsores."

-a quote from a novel; has niffenegger been reading my mind?-

Ceilidh Dance

I went to my first Ceilidh dance event.

It was AMAZING! (although at times, i was panting like hell, gasping for air, almost fainted even- OMG i am so unfit)
I danced with a lot of people, alot I meant alot. Lads and Lasses.
Grinning all night.



this is an example of ceilidh dance... the one that we had then was obviously more energetic and craaazeeeeee...
(of course being an event for medics*, dowh)

*fund raising for mountain rescue team. good stuff.

Eurotrip 2008 (Part 3)

OK, is anyone out there still reading this? (I mean really interested in reading the travel stories, Me myself grow tired of typing despite the stories being very exciting for me personally)

Recap: We had been to Budapest, Vienna, Krakow and now heading to Prague. As I hinted previously: Prague is where everything went wrong. Of course, time for yet another list:

WHY I DON'T LIKE PRAGUE:

i) I had my first big argument with my traveling partner. Mind you guys, I have been traveling with this particular girl since the last five years and had had many good times (nope, let me change that: many great times) trawling the narrow streets of venice, feeding the kangaroo in melbourne, awe-ing at the art of Muslim architecture in southern spain etc. Details are hard to recall but to cut the story short: I had lack of sleep while she didn't have her daily dose of coffee the morning we shouted at each other in the metro (and at its platform) in Prague. That was really a BADDDD experience, definitely something that I wish will never happen again.

ii) Prague is too crowded. Too many tourists. Blocking all the views, disturbing all photo opportunities, annoying me at every turn! 

iii) It rained. Every. Day. Boo. Me and Miss A again had disagreement: about the umbrella this time. Never thought that she was so sensitive about my usual frank comment, she was probably still geared up from the first fight (point no 1).

If there is one good thing that happened in Prague it would be going to string quartet performance in a converted church. They played crowd-pleaser renditions and I went ga-ga (as usual) over thing like this. Air (bach) and spring (Vivaldi) etc. 

From there we went to Munich on a night train (which a total killer as the journey sucked big time- 4 hours stop in an extremely cold train station)

Munich is, again, a city that excel well beyond my expectation. I could actually see myself living there. Why? I dont know. But I just like the laid back atmosphere there. We went to Deustches Museum (and was amazed with the size and number of exhibits), watched a concert of Germany famous artists (free in the town square), climbed a clock tower (and saw gorgoeus view of the whole city), ate Halal chicken sandwich (and delicious ciabatta....hhhmmm...mmm) and spoke to Munchen people (very friendly, I must add).

Then... then... then.... (ooo this is very exciting) ..

we went to a castle: Neuwschwantein Schloss. It was damn gorgoeus. This castle was used as the template for designing the Sleeping Beauty castle in Disneyland worldwide. I find it very difficult to describe the area without pictures, because it really was amazing. Even with pictures, the real thing is so much more magnificent. Info: This area is located about 2 hours away from Munich.

Then, the journey continued into Switzerland. Absolutely breathtaking. More story later. 

Ta, p53.

Eurotrip Summer (Part 2)

Aih, seasonal affective disorder is here again for this academic year.
Boo.
Since we started (we referring to 5th years) on Monday the 1st of Sept, Friday was one the only totally free day that I had. So I slept. Nothing surprising or new there but, it got to the point of worryingly more than usual. I woke up for sahur (early morning breakfast in Ramadhan) and then got back to sleep. Woke up again around the usual time 9-ish. Had my shower and got dressed. Decided that reading about liver was wee bit too boring and had a nap. Woke up at 1pm-ish and looked out of the window. Drizzling. Went back to sleep. Woke up at 5pm. Thought that "man- this is sickening!" Out of my bed for good (for this sleeping marathon session).
Altogether it was 8hours of sleep on top of my regular 8hours of nightly sleep. Shocking.
I am not depressed am I? I need to really watch my sleep (like how those on diet really have to watch what they are eating).

Anyway... after I (finally) woke up, I went out for an iftar (when you break fast) dinner with a group of friends. Food was gorgeous. The restaurant that we went to is definitely one of the best Indian restaurant around. Worth a visit any day. 15quids for copiuos amount of food- I could hardly walk afterwards. Then back to my friend's place and played SceneIt on XBOX. Good stuff although I have to say I prefer PS3's SINGSTAR.

Ok.
Back to my Eurotrip story.

Recap: We've been to Budapest and Bratislava so far. Weather had been brilliant. Hot and sunny- probably I could get back to UK with a bit of tan.

We arrived in Vienna later that day (after spending a day in Bratislava). As with all cities that we have been to, upon arrival we had to figure out how does the public transport work. Let me add at this point that:-
i) Me and Miss A are both quite good in navigating our way in new places.
ii) We always take the cheapest option (sometime we are so lucky you just wouldnt believe it)
iii) Sometime it pains me just to leave a city when I'm already an expert of its transportation system, only to have to learn a new, completely different system in the next city. For this I always say: new city new adventure.

So from the train station we got to our hostel by bus. The hostel was a proper backpackers' place. We were placed in a room of 6. Went out to survey the area (almost sunset time then) and checked out the museum quarter and the Hofburgs (official palaces for the kings and queens of Austria). I remember having McDonalds (filet o fish- in case you're wondering) while looking at the shadow of the Hofburgs fall upon the Kunhistorisches Museum. When night beckoned, we made our way back to the hostel and I had (cold!) shower- with people playing poker right in front of my shower room. Not that it matters but it was certainly weird.


There were people playing loud Indian music from the room next to ours. The use of the word 'room' is probably incorrect as the hostel was more like a long corridor with make-shift cubicle consisting of thin cardboard and curtain. And then there were people who took ages to get ready to go out partying. I slept straight away only to wake to some snoring noise around midnight time. As I opened my eyes, I was not prepared to see what lay there in front of me. A BIG guy sleeping in just his boxers. What a frightening sight. Not that it matters but it was like a nightmare that I had to look at a relatively hairy guy sleeping less then 10feet away from me. Put on my earplugs and turned over to the other side, and voila.


The next day we went to Schonbrunn Palace (summer resident) and I personally found that it is very impressive. Learnt a bit about the Austrian history- which I have already forgotten about by the time of writing. The gardens are definitely something that I'll be proud about if I live there. Not like it ever gonna happen. Ha.

Austria in comparison to Budapest and Bratislava, is a modern city despite of perfect preservation of anything historic. Hence things cost slight more here. The city is cleaner and the poeple look well-off. The museum quarter is a hip area where a lot of teenagers hang out amidst bustling atmosphere.

I regretted the fact that we were only there for 1 day 1 night, so now I would like to advise to others who are planning to visit Vienna, please stay longer (3 days at the least) as there are so much to see. I missed out on the one of the world's best museum as it was closed on the day we were there. At this point let me give some tips:
i) Beware of opening days of major attraction (most museum close on Monday in that part of world)
ii) Note that on sunday, all shopping complex/ shops are closed (with the exception of eateries and Starsbuck and its alike)
iii) Plan that journey in a way that you couple sunday with the saturday before or monday with the tuesday after for each cities. Just so you wont miss out. Not that it matters if you just want to chill out in the park and eat and drink beers (for non-muslims only).

We took our first night train from Vienna to Krakow. Uneventful journey. I slept straight away but Miss A did complaint of slight sleeping difficulties in the first few hours. Poor girl, but she was fine for the subsequent legs of journey.

Warning: Do not attempt backpacking on train ever if you're a light sleeper/ can't sleep anywhere else apart from your own bed/ like the comfort of a proper bed. You will just hate the whole trip and make thing miserable for your traveling partner(s).


Krakow is awesome, man! Seriously truly a surprise coz I wasnt expecting it to be as good. It is a developing city (with loads of construction) that has well preserved historical sites. It has this multi-storey shopping complex that can rival Arndale of Manchester. Weather was bright and sunny for each day we were there (read: loads of ice cream!) Markets are simply the bomb (with such closed-knit atmosphere) with a lot of things organic and oh so fresh. The central square is so happening like you wouldnt believe that you are in Krakow, better than Trafalgar sq. Amber comes cheap (thats why I got some, hehe, mere excuse I know) and food are reasonably priced. The castle on the hill become a photoshoot location for me and Miss A. Trust me it is THAT beautiful. Then there is this river 5 mins walk from the castle. We played many round of Uno on the river bank while watching the sun set. Miss A kept on saying "this is the life man". Indeed. That was the life.

I dont think I can praise Krakow enough. If you're thinking of going to Poland, go to Krakow instead of Warsaw (some parts of warsaw were destroyed in WWII).

Speaking of which, we went to one of the concentration camp use by Hitler and his army to mass-murder Jewish and Polish during the WWII. Auschwitz. The name in itself send shivers down my spine. Those who are interested can read more about Auschwitz in Wikipedia. I have my own stand about this issue, which I'm not prepared to talk in length about. Ask me personally if you're interested to know.

Later that day we took a night train to Prague. Prague, where everything went wrong. Oh no.

To be continued.
p53 xoxo

Eurotrip Summer (Part 1)

I have always wanted to backpack in Europe, be it on the train, hitch-hiking or road-trip by driving. Its just one of the things that I must do during my five years stay in UK (yeah- something that I promised myself). It is also one of the things that are on my to-do-before-I-die-list. So- yahoo, bring it on.

The wise thing do is to planning for the trip long before the actual trip. The idea was, but the preparation was not. Should I go alone? Or should I go with a friend? Friend- which one is better- a male or a female? Where to go? Where to start? Budget? Means of transportation? And a lot of other small things but just as important. However with all the things going in 4th year and what seems like something very typical of me- all trip-related planning was done not long before the departure date itself. Spur of a moment kind of thing.

One of the most important issues prior to the departure date was: Should we (by this time I decided to go with Miss A, my travel partner) book everything beforehand? Or should we rough it and leave it all to fate? Bear in mind this is peak summer season we are talking about (smack bang right in August!) After careful deliberation following readings of few travel books, we decided to book everything- for our peace of mind.

Details:
When: August 2008
Where: Started in the UK then the other European countries.
Means: Train (with Interrail Pass for under 26- 10 days in 22 days)
Accom: Hostels
Budget: As much as the cost of a flight ticket back to home country in peak season (roughly 800quids- trust me- worth every penny!)
Baggage: Only small backpack allowed- for ease of traveling (about 25L each- light and can be carried on cabin)

Ok now the fun bit.

Route: A smallcity in UK- BRADFORD- YORK- MANCHESTER- BUDAPEST- BRATISLAVA- VIENNA- KRAKOW- PRAGUE- MUNICH- SWITZERLAND- PARIS-BRUSSEL-MANCHESTER- A smallcity in UK

Right after we moved out of our house in smallcity, we headed to Bradford to honour the invitation of HM#1’s parents. Good stuff: we ate a lot (in preparation of halalless eastern European countries) and watch tv like there was no tomorrow (no tv in hostels or even if they have one, most likely it’ll be in a foreign language).

Then we went to York to visit a good friend. Big country house/mansion. Her dog barked every single time he saw me. Bad dog. We had so much fun doing the new York Maze. It took us hours though. I still remember the brilliant time we had having (home-cooked) dinner in her garden just when the sun was about to set. I will miss her when I get back to my home country- seriously.

From there on, we got to Manchester. I saw few good friends and complaint about how long has 4th yr been. I topped up on carb before we flew to Budapest.

The immigration officer asked me: Do you have enough money?
Me: Sure (my mouth smiled then, when my brain was actually saying: Wtf is he thinking about?? Hell yeah I got enough money- did I not tell you just now that I was there on vacation?)
Immigration officer looked at me quizzing and then decided to let me through. (After few days, I found out why: a lot of illegal immigrants from Romania wears black scarf- like I did on arriving in Hungary). Ohh…. Hmm… we did see a lot of beggars when we were there –presumably Muslims from Romania/Bosnia? - Some with kids and all. Haih.

Budapest looks nice generally but some parts do look rundown. The city area is divided (by a river) into the Buda and the Pest area. One of the bridges crossing that river looks stunning at night. Interesting place includes: the castle, the funicular, the parliament and the massive, absolutely romantic looking park in the city- lots of couple were there for wedding photographs.

We met my best gay friend unexpectedly in Budapest- what a small world, by that time he was already two weeks into his trip- looking all tan and gay-ish (meaning happy).

Then we took a very early morning train to Bratislava. See the thing about using train pass you have to really organize and plan your route so that you can maximize its use. (unless of coz you get yourself an unlimited one month pass which gonna cost you 260quids). So a day trip to Bratislava it was. After which we headed straight to Vienna on the same day.

Bratislava is even more so run-down compared to Budapest. It was practically empty at 8.30am –time of arrival. It is a small, walkable city (with maps scale of about 1 km from east to west and north to south). Some part of the castle is currently under construction, so we spent our afternoon in the castle’s garden- lunching and reading. Other tourists found us interesting (or at least that’s what I thought) or probably pretty (no doubt about this) as most of them stared at us like the new see a-muslim-person before (ala Eminem in his Slim Shady song). The big cathedral is quite impressive in term of its height and I can only imagine how the long tall stain glass will look like from the inside (imagine because it was Sunday, and we didn’t go in as there was a mass taking place). We took bucket load of pictures considering how small this place is.

Then off to Austria late that evening.
(to be cont’d)
p53 xoxo

L.U.S.H

I was in L.U.S.H yesterday when I couldn't help but eavesdrop the conversation of a group of youngsters. (Brief description: they are punk-ish looking, 15-16y-o two boys and two girls group of very close friends). What drew my attention was: the two boys are actually gay and so well spoken about all things girlish. Would have expected that when I saw one of them flicking his hair in such a show manner!

Quote:
Why don't LUSH make a perfume that smells like LUSH's shop? Coz I like the smell veeerrryyy much! Nothing more refreshing than 'this' (hands pointing to the air)!

well, thats what he said.
I couldnt agree less.

*LUSH is a company that produces ethical, hand- made based things (skincare, lotion, shampoo and soapsssss!) I love them all and I love the smell of the shop.

Helloooooooooooooooooo....

Hi,
Yeah, I'm still around.
Just been away from all the internet for the last month more or less due to traveling.

Of course there is a lot to tell.
I don"t even know where to begin.

Traveling.
Eurotrip- as i keep on calling it. I visited 9 countries with my traveling partner and I absolutely enjoyed myself during the trip. Few glitches here and there, but hey ho, one thing struck off my to-do-before-i-die-list.
More stories about the trip in later posts. I couldn't upload the picture just yet- don't know whats up with my computer and couldnt find the original CD for the camera to reset the uploading system.

Ok.

I'm a fifth year now.
Can you believe it? I fond it hard to believe myself.
I still remember the first few weeks I was in UK and I met few of the final years then and I thought "Gosh, when will i ever be a final year?"
Well, I am now.
Scared to bones- remember nothing (well almost) medically related.
Nevermind, I'll take everything in my strike and see how it goes.
No point of worrying about whats gonna happen. or so it may seem as at 4th sept. ha.
More stories to follow.

Other than that:
i) I'm still sleepy most of the time (this fasting thing saps my energy faster than you can say energy itself)
ii) Still thin- thank God I didnt lose anymore weight than what I could afford. Backpacking is a sure way of losing weight- trust me.
iii) I kinda miss a lot of people right now. why o why?

Till then,
p53