Had a slow week, starting off with a lazy Monday and was punished with pharyngitis on Tuesday. Had a pounding headache on Wednesday and was worried about preeclampsia all day, trying to judge if I had any facial or limb edema. Thankfully that subsided and all was good for gyming yesterday and today.

Spring is wonderful. With temperatures ranging in the teens, a light jacket and some sunshine lifts anyone's spirits. In the past week, I've taken to walking a little slower, breathing in a little deeper, wondering if some of the things I'm doing might be one of the "lasts". "Last time" I'll trip over to Jersey for some Cheesecake Factory fix, "last time" I'll be able to walk to Chinatown for morning dim sum, "last time" I'll be able to go for small group/bible study. Not sure where this sense of fatality came from, but I remember a vague sense of it before starting work in May 2012. Haha, a new cycle begins.

Things are set in place, and I guess I am kind of in a season of waiting. The past 4 months have gone by faster than I'd expected, and I spent the last week slowing down, treasuring those precious moments when the sun has risen and SJ is still asleep, just watching and being thankful for him. Treasuring also the luxury of being able to take a midday nap, have ice cream, drink coffee...I wonder what life will be like post May 2016. Who knows? (: God willing.

I slept poorly last night. Not sure if it was like the weird pressure on my abdomen or just thoughts about the future. Nonetheless, I woke up to news of SJ's class being cancelled which meant a morning stroll to La Colombe and Bagel Bob's for breakfast! On my tri-weekly stroll to the gym at 404 Lafayette I always walk past La Colombe and wish I could have an iced latte. But that is usually just wishful thinking because at 5PM, seriously, who drinks iced latte. So yay to today!

Only recently have I hopped onto the bagel bandwagon and discovered how amazingly chewy bagels are. Plus the insanely fattening cream cheese atop a freshly toasted bagel...oo la la. Can't quite believe it took me like 8 months to make this startling discovery. And only because I had a free bagel at one of SJ's NYC runs.


Moving into this "last phase" of NYC, there is some sense of bittersweetness (oh the cliche). I'm sort of taking time to breathe in the last breaths of the marijuana filled smog of the city and also enjoy the friendships that we've made here. SJ recently remarked that we have done well in co-existing in a small space. In the past year we've had minimal me-time given that I'm around most of the time and if he's not in school then he's home studying. Social activities are always done together and I'm thankful that we've survived well (for now). Hadn't thought about how this year would have changed our marriage and I'm glad that we're on the made-it rather than break-it end of the spectrum. :)

Ok, I had to truncate writing this post because I was off to the Salvation Army for lunch service. 6 weeks to go, fingers crossed :x

What a weird feeling :S

Times have been tough.

MICU is a weird environment. Things are changing all the time. Patients, bosses, labs, things, patterns, where things are kept. It's a wonder people actually survive an ICU stay. Everyday is a surprise, be it the deathly ill patient who improves, or the patient who has been apparently doing well suddenly deteriorating. My friends say I have "good call luck", with infrequent admissions on call and generally nice patients. They say that once you've seen MICU, nothing fazes you anymore. You can just about stick a tube into any part of the body to introduce or withdraw things as you please. It's true, medicine and technology have come a long way in organ support. Man can be kept alive artificially for a long time. It can be a blessing, but people sometimes fail to see how that becomes a curse. The curse of ICU, my boss would say, on discussing the case of a patient on day 59 of ICU, with a tracheostomy and no reasonable room for any improvement. It's been a tiring month, and yet another month more.

On a personal front, family matters have seen my frequenting NUH often these days. Thankful for many many angels that God has put in our paths to provide the best possible care. From an instantaneous clinic consult, an early surgery date and just the right people to spy on the back end to make sure things are alright. Even people whom I've just barely said hi to from a long distance away have been ever ready to lend a hand. I've come to realise also that SJ are highly unemotional and inert people. I make up for it by conscious social equilibration, but SJ really does not bother at all. We discussed what each would do if one of us fell ill, and both decided that death was the better alternative. Life goes on regardless, no moping allowed.

I'd like to write about the patient experience, but that is for another day. Work starts tomorrow as usual, 6:30AM, regardless of the fact that it is Saturday and part of a nice long weekend that I cannot enjoy. Just to remember that in this time of mundane madness,  SJ has been wonderful. After a terribly long day, I get to come home to a clean house, washed laundry and a hot home cooked dinner. Poor long suffering husband.

Today I thought about the day my mum died.

Twenty two days into January! Enjoying this new rotation very much. Busy, but thoughtful and challenging. Started off with NICU and now in the Acute Stroke Unit. Tubed my first patient (finally) and am getting the hang of "putting in lines". I had the chance to rotate with R who was a great partner and also someone with much experience and knowledge to learn from. Participated in the first Prof U tutorial (did not put paces school of horror to shame!)  and now can sit back to relax a little. Even at this point in my training, learning how to be faithful in little things before going on to bigger things.

Some things that I've been trying to procrastinate on deciding have sprung up in recent times. I have never been good at saying no. Praying for wisdom and peace in this decision making process.

SJ is at reservist exercise tonight so I am husbandless for now. He didn't leave without cooking a pot of chicken curry,  teriyaki salmon and chyesim for dinner. I shall continue to shamelessly be the wife that cannot cook :D

I go to work daily at 6:45 AM. On average, I round about 5 patients on my own, then another 5 with the Registar, and finally round these patients again with the Consultant. On a bad day, this number doubles...triples. This is followed by discharges, blue letter referrals, updating families...sometimes even for patients I have neither seen nor spoken to nor touched before. This goes on...and on...until the afternoon when there are new cases to be clerks, ED cases to be examined. Then there is the exit round, more new cases, tracing changes. Despite all that I have "done", I go home daily never before 6 PM feeling wasted, unproductive and uninspired. I collapse in bed by 10 PM.

Today was a breath of fresh air. I woke up without an alarm at 7:30 AM, just in time to hang up the laundry that we had set to complete overnight. SJ rolled out of bed slowly and we headed out to Alexandra for a BKT breakfast. Trotted over to Vivo to buy tickets to the earliest show for Mockingjay Part 1 (not great, don't bother) and then just past time sitting in Starbucks with a Peppermint Frappe waiting for 10:35 AM to come.




Movie done, we took a stroll around Samsung and Singtel to scout out prices for a new handphone, and then to the Tangs Christmas Fair to deliberate on whether we should blow $250 on a Christmas tree (decidedly not!). By 1:30 PM our stomaches were ready for lunch and we settled for good ole Crystal Jade :) Yumyum in my tumtum.

Topped up my cashcard after procrastinating forever, and headed home to plan Germany. In that 2 hours of planning, SJ washed the bedsheet, ironed the clothes, and by the end of it I had whipped out an 8-day itinerary - maps, tickets and all :D

Drove over to the in laws, washed the car and had dinner with family. Came home, showered, and spent the rest of the evening working on TreeAge while SJ packed his luggage.

Now it's 10:43 PM and time for bed. Fresh bedsheets are on, one day before they are due. :)

This is the best kind of productivity ever.

So Facebook reminds me that SJ and I have been married for a year! A grand total of 365 days. What a feat!


Leading up to today have been stressful days of late night tutorials, burnt weekends at courses and being angsty and fatigued at immense pressure at work and academia. So today I declared a day off in celebration of 1 year of God's grace towards us both.

Rolled out of bed at 7:20 AM as per routine for church service. Today being today, I thought I'd check with my other half if I needed to dress up to make it feel special, since I never ever dress up for anything.

"Should I wear the blue dress today?"
"No la! For what, so troublesome." 

With that, I reaffirmed that I married the right man, and threw on my usual casual 3/4 pants and Tshirt. Heng ah. Popped off to church, where we sang How can I keep from Singing by Chris Tomlin.



Post church, we made full use of the early morning and drove down to Plaza Sing for brunch at Tim Ho Wan. The verdict? Bad. Won't go back again. Stressful dim sum eating in a cramped restaurant with intense waitresses who cannot wait to clear and turnover your table for the next patrons. The only really yummy thing as their Bo Luo Bao, which was expensive as well.

Since I had a pair of free GV tickets, we bought tickets for Marvel's Captain America. It was...okay I guess. Lots of action but the plot was not clear and weird. Not much character development either. Doesn't matter, SJ just wanted to see some explosions and boom boom boom. Post movie since we were still full from THW we just headed to our usual haunt for some Dutch Colony coffee and cake. (Not before picking up some new Teva slippers at the 50% World of Sports sale!) Actually this was just an excuse for us to indulge in our favorite activity of all time - supermarketing. Caught up with the weekend Tyson chicken sale and went home with enough veggies and chicken for the week.

So now its raining, I've showered and we're just hanging out and waiting for dinner time to come where we're booked for dinner at Brasserie Les Saveur. Just realised we spent the whole day doing what we do best, eating, having coffee and supermarketing. No fancy clothes, flowers or presents. Pretty much sums up 1 year of marriage, where the mundane with the right person still is magic.

Play doughy

Caramelized pineapples (that blooped all over and made a huge mess of my stove!)

Egg yolk wash pre-bake

Egg yolk wash FAIL.

To side track a bit, I decided that this household needed to find a balance between eating in extravagance and eating healthily. So after a week of feasting (Mum's birthday, cousin returning from NZ etc etc), weekend lunch was a blend of celery sticks, oranges, carrots, left over pineapples and lemons.

Recipe for gut cleaning.

Time for a detox!

"The world is your oyster."
William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

Been and back from a strange land, with strange words and very beautiful people. SJ and I jumped at the opportunity to stretch our tiny newlywed budgets to this Soviet state on his pass to the IAP Conference 2013. Our hosts were very very hospitable - from diplomatic clearance through arrival gates, being chauffeured to and fro the airport to the hotel to the Kremlin to the party at the Summer Palace. Not forgetting the gifts after gifts after gifts, and booze...lots and lots of booze. (I certainly am not thanking them for introducing the hubs to whisky, vodka and the likes >( Meh.) Pretty sights, beautiful women, cool autumn winds. It was also where we came into close proximity with Da Vincis, Monets and Raphaels in the incredible Hermitage. (Not that I really appreciated them, but still!)

St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow, Russia

The Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia

Booze.

That said, Russia is not quite the place I'd recommend for the tourist, at least for now.

1. It is expensive. Very expensive. A standard meal in Burger King will cost you at least 12€ . Ketchup costs another 1€.
2. Они не говорят на английском языке, at least most of them don't. 
3. Singaporeans will need to apply for a tourist visa to enter. While you are there, you will also need to be registered in every Russian city that you enter, translating to more costs and red tape. 
4. You almost definitely need to hire a guide (usually for the entire day) to bypass the long queues at the attractions and explain all the historical sights and monuments along the way because there are no English signs or explanations. This means no randomly stopped for a rest or a coffee whenever you feel like. 
5. The country has a rich history and culture, but otherwise nothing else much to do...or eat.

Met a couple of funny people on this trip - fascination with owls and bears, interesting conversations over Beluga, breakfast sabos (a very blatant one at that), stuffy egos and overtipping. A reminder that small talk tires the introvert in me out thoroughly.

Back to work tomorrow!

2013 Travels
Singapore ✈ Phuket ✈ Singapore
Singapore ✈ Melbourne ✈ Singapore
Singapore ✈ Kuala Lumpur ✈ Singapore
Singapore ✈ Frankfurt ✈ Prague ✈ Frankfurt ✈ Singapore
Singapore ✈ Bangkok ✈ Moscow ✈ St. Petersburg ✈ Moscow ✈ Bangkok ✈ Singapore

The hubs is going to leave on a work trip tonight while I stay home to study :( No better way than to spend our last moments together...doing face masque O:

Bodyshop Green Tea face masque

Hola! It's been a month since getting married and things have been moving so quickly I can hardly catch my breath! I apologize for being missing in action for a while. Please don't forget me!

So...SJ and I got married on 25th May 2013 (writing it down here so I don't forget hmmm...). It was a weird feeling. After months and months of preparation (we started waaaayyy in advance, being the insane planners we are...or I am) it was finally here! We had lots of helps from very awesome friends who sacrificed late weekday nights practicing music and listening of briefing after briefing. Heartfelt thanks for every one who pitched in in one way or another.

The morning was an easy wake up, since we did away with the gatecrashing. (SJ says it is a violation of human rights.) I woke up at a sleepy 7:30 am, after a late night driving the car to the florist to get it dressed up. Had a quick shower and sat around waiting for the best man Jason and maid of honour Kaiqian to arrive. at 9am. For the record, they were both sharp on time. My mum had prepared char siew baos for our breakfast and we had some kopi along with it. The groom took his time to arrive and arrived late at 9:15 am. Still, we had enough time for a couple more char siew baos before the make up artists arrived.

Mr Jason Leong, best man, eating 10x siew mai. Very glam.

Ms Kaiqian, maid (of honour) since 2002

 At 10:15 am, our make up artists Jovie and Co from The Little Brush arrived and we all got to work. First on me and Kaiqian, then SJ's mum, my mum and finally the vain boys. Ting from Lightedpixels Pixies reached just shortly after to get some snaps. All was done and good to go by 12:15pm, not before Ting said some emo things which made me tear up and wither in front of everyone! Mark of a good photographer to do something like that! ;O

All was good and relaxing as we reached the church at 1:00 pm, and our trusty helpers had done up the place for a fantastic start. (Knew I chose the right people!) Hung around in the waiting room while family and SJ hosted our guests. 2:15 pm came and we were called to the sanctuary! Walking down the aisle was nothing like what we had rehearsed. Big gown plus stress plus heelslikeneverbefore was made for diasaster! Nonetheless, I made it to the altar in one piece. Yay me.

Everything flew by in a whiz. I mostly remember standing before the altar with my mum by my side and remembering my father which brought tears to my eyes. There was the songs, exhortation, vows and speeches. For those who were at the service, I need to announce that I was hearing SJ's speech for the first time as you were. It was completely unadulterated. O: This was followed by photos photos and more photos until 5:00pm when we called it a day and scooted off to Regent Hotel for our family dinner.


Dinner was a quiet affair. Four tables, family only. We had tea ceremony (which was kind of weird since I had to serve tea to my brothers!) and I quickly changed out of my gown into a sunday dress for comfort, all ready for a yummy meal. Twas yummy indeed!

Mum :)

And so that was the end of our busy day, and thereafter I became a missus. For those who are preparing, please feel free to buzz me for lobangs. My husband is a lobang king and I think we got pretty good deals for our wedding. That said though, it was fuss free and minimalistic.

Oh yes, by the way, this is the man I married. :)



Up next, married life...

Scolded in the day at work.

Been having too many pent up and frustrated posts here recently. Time for some brainless rambling to sooth the brainless soul. 


Then there was the 32nd Council Reunion which brought back fond memories of doing crazy things in the same place with the same people 6 years ago. So much so I went home to dig up my archives of council photos, which was very embarrassing and amusing at the same time. It was really amazing how everyone hadn't changed! The girls were all in fine jobs and the guys finishing up their final year. Mrs Ang will be proud of us!

Also recently brought SJ for his birthday to try the beef cheek at Open Door Policy after having been brought there by at Meelia's birthday celebration. We also had the wild mushroom risotto with truffle crumbs. The food was certainly yummy, but the rowdy Friday night crowd and the low ceilings didn't make much for a romantic dinner out haha. In usual Singaporean fashion, it was a fast eat fast go.

In between trying to juggle work and life, I've also been trying to look for photographers, caterers, dresses and the like for the wedding. For anyone who understands how particular I am about certain things, the task is looking to be a formidable one. To quote Pooh, how bothersome! If anyone has good recommendations or lobangs to share, they would be very much appreciated!

Otherwise, I'm also looking to pick up a new hobby (like painting or something)! Anyone interested to join me or with good ideas are welcome to drop me a message!

It seems to me that with every milestone comes this false assurance of having...arrived. Graduated? Congratulations! Residency? Congratulations! Engaged? Congratulations! I say false assurance because as much as there is much safety in finding firm ground beneath your feet, the truth is it is but the beginning of another set of challenges. Who is to say that graduation will not see me killing my first patient? Behind the glitz and glamour of residency, how many actually drop and burn out? Engagement is certainly no golden ticket to a happily ever after.

10th of March. Clinical OSCEs, a test of communication and basic skills. (1) It was by no means the work of chance that led me to mug videos on incentive spirometry that morning itself. Just vomited out what those teaching videos had on recording to Mr Raj, and tried to zhng by adding on abdominal coughing. (2) Moving on, I would have totally buanged the GXM station, if Prof Kenneth Mak hadn't saved me by dropping youaregoingtofailandiamtellingyouwhatotdo hints :s I hadn't even realized my error until later when everyone was going through answers and it then occurred to me what grace I had been given. (3) I gave my HIV patient THE secret number. At least I said I would, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. well, it seemed like that to me while I was sitting in the HIV clinic last time! Oh well, I hope I don't get marked down for being indiscrete. (4) Medicines medicine medicines. I missed the amitryptiline overdose! It looked a little weird. I said I would check. (5) Got owned by Prof Glycated Haemoglobin DDD: was doing perfectly fine with open fractures until he started quizzing me about statistics and operative options. (6) Blue letters, memos. No time, everything was just...spinal. (7) Angry mother, angry daughter of patient and sad wife of patient with Alzheimer's dementia were neither too furious nor depressed...I think? :p

Sitting in the seminar room at MD6 at 9am in the morning makes one pensive. Early morning thunderstorm...I guess I'm just waiting for the rainbow.

Remember this post where I remarked about how unromantic SJ was in not doing anything fancy for our anniversary?