Life ... as it is

Yes, rather.

I spent the dawning of the 30th of September 2009 working nights at the hospital. No birthday dinner, no celebration.

I did not expect any whatsoever because my current relationship and ongoing social status with my fellow house officers are not at the level of birthday celebration chumminess.

I wasn't affected at all though, after all I celebrated my 'early' birthday in Toulon, where Kai Lin and PT went in search for candles (bijuu in French) to put on my chocolate melting pot dessert.


A huge fireworks candle indeed.

I was however, pleasantly surprised when I emerged for my handover at 8am and all my surgical house officers wished me happy birthday.

Jonny even got me a Tesco Chocolate Muffin to eat.

I went home a little happier and got my second surprise of the day, when my military man flatmate gave me a card and a present. Practical everyone puts it - a TV antenna to go with my Samsung LCD Flatscreen!

It works.

2 hours before I was due in for work again, my SHO and partner turned up at my doorstep with 2 cakes - Tesco's Raspberry Cheesecake and a mini Smarties gift cake.

Yet another surprise.

Then another 3 friends popped by with half a bottle of wine - I know, nothing impressive whatsoever but I spent an enjoyable 30 mins eating as much cake as I can indulge in, and half a glass of wine. Cake, cake, cake.

Then came my weekend.

Edinburgh beckoned.

The first night was spent with my old classmates. I had no idea how much I missed them, how much I missed talking in the Malaysian slang and also just jabbering non stop. I really think I talk too much. What is that phrase - silence is golden, speech is silver? I Really Need to practice that. But, after all, we did spend 5 years together. That's almost 1/5 of my life.

Then came another cake, yes, a chocolate fudge cake from Double Dutch that Edinburgh's No. 1 chef - Su Ping tastefully decorated.


I mean, how can you say No to a cake like that?!


I had too generous slices.

The surprises did not end there.

The next morning, I was awakened from my nest of warm duvets with a chorus of Happy Birthday and a beautiful cheesecake materialised out of thin air.


I had a cheesecake right on my bed!! (not mine, technically. Meryl's).

Jo, Edinburgh's Chief Baker (and eater) made this lovely strawberry cheesecake. How can I express my love for her and the rest of the team? I cannot. It has to go to proof with me inhaling the entire cheesecake as fast as I can.



A slice of fatty cheesecake first thing in the morning, right after a minty teeth brushing - makes quite a difference to life's outlook.

I also received a DKNY pink apple perfume from them, so now I have both the green and pink version. Love it.
On top of that I also received a really posh manicure and pedicure set that's so uber high class, I am a bit afraid to use it.

From what I thought would be a really boring birthday for 2009, had in actual fact turned out to be a surprised filled one indeed.

I returned to Maidstone a tad deflated, but massively happy for I love my mates, also bearing in mind that I would be meeting everyone again the next weekend for our trip to Alton Towers.

Wicked.

Posted by rachelhung at 4:44 AM | 0 comments    

They are shit.

Was in the ward where a patient who is extremely complicated and annoying because she has this terrible pain that seems to go on forever and ever, was discharged and readmitted; whn I spotted the Acute Pain Team nurse - whose name is J..... (due to confidentiality) J..... the pain. It rhymes btw. Go figure.

I spotted J and immediately asked her if she is seeing my patient at to which she snaps back and says no, she cannot do anymore for her and also that she has not had any official referral form for her. The ward sister then asks if she wanted us to put a proper referral in at to which she blatantly refuses and says NO.

EH B****. You are the PAIN TEAM OK. You would know most about pain drugs than ANY consultant and you are saying no? So if a patient comes in and there is nothing more I can do for them, do I say no, I am not going to see you?!

F.

What followed was a highly strung conversation where I asked her what was the last pain medication she prescribed for this patient and she immediately answered that she did not know, but the patient was on morphine, oxynorm.. etc...etc...
Of course, you are a nurse, it is totally your right to forget, not to mention you've seen her loads and controlled her pain medication all the time she was in. Your brain is probably the size of a pea. If not you could very well be a doctor. (This statement is only intended for her and I believe all other nurses are brilliant). Obviously, I see only 1 patient a day and with a turnover rate in urology that runs at an average of approximately 1 patient per year, the pain medication suddenly came to me (because my brain capacity is the size of the atlas), and I said, 'Ok, I believe it was Oxynorm Liquid. Can you tell me the dose you gave her?'

At to which J the bitch says in the superior-est tone, 'Can you not look into her notes? She has only been discharged for 2 days, her notes and drug charts should ALL BE HERE.'

And I retort, 'I can, but if you remember it NOW, I can prescribe it NOW and then the patient will stop bugging us all for pain relief every 2 seconds'

At to which the winner comes, (I should really document what she said to me in the patient's notes), 'What are you going to do if I am not around doctor?'

'Well, I will look into the BNF'
Duh, asshole. WTF are you going to do with NO doctors around?! While you are almost too easily replaceable with a book who gives me all the medicines and doses, I am tooting irreplaceable because you did not tooting go to medical school. What you effing know, I EFFING KNOW. Just at a lower level of competency. But what I know, you DON'T. So do not give me bullcrap about what I AM GOING TO DO WHEN THERE IS NO YOU AROUND.

'Well, what if I told you the wrong dose and you prescribed it and the blame will be on you cos you signed it....'

Eh, f****er. If you don't want to tell, then just SHUT UP and say you do not know or remember. Why in our good Lord's name do you even care if I got pulled up by the GMC for prescribing a wrong dose of Oxynorm Liquid?! It won't tooting KILL the patient and even if that happens, it's me who is answering, not you nitty gritty pudding face blabbering idiot who cannot work your brain cells to tell me the dose.
Even if you think I am taking the easy way out to ask the dose, I am more than happy to admit - I AM. So? Just say you don't know lah, end of story. So what if I have to dive myself into the drug formulary book to find out the proper dose or read through her entire stack of notes to confirm it?

Or you could make everyone's life easier if you just tell me it because you obviously tooting know the dose.
That's teamwork baby.
I mean bitch.

Anyway, after her lecture about me getting into trouble because of wrong dosing, I completely lost it, said,

'FINE. '

'FINE.'

And immediately stalked off the ward.

Possibly slamming the phone that was in my hand with quite unnecessarily force into its cradle and slamming the doors behind me.

No, I don't think I did that.

As I walked down to the paediatrics ward to clerk in 3 patients, I had to constantly remind myself to calm down, forget it and plaster on the fake warm smile when I finally had to meet the children and their parents.

On retrospect, I could probably have handled it better by saying in a sugary sweet voice that 'it is okay if you do not remember' instead of the two very stiff FINE. But things thought on retrospect always seems cleverer anyway.

I give up.

Enemy No. 1 have been made at my workplace.

Posted by rachelhung at 7:09 AM | 3 comments    

No.

One does not start working and give up the world of travelling.

But, the problem is, when one starts working, holidays are too short.
No more 14-days trip to Greece and Turkey in 1 package. Gone were the 10-day trips to Germany or Italy.

What we get is hardly a week, and even if you get more than a week, your travel mates gets 5 days or some nonsensical time like that. So even if you could take a whole week holiday, you'd have to go alone.

Or settle somewhere in between with a 5 day holiday.

So after much deliberation and deciding WHERE to go for our first holiday since the start of work, the French Riviera was decided on.
Not really because we wanted to go there, but because its relatively cheap and neighboring cities are near each other.

We met at Nice Côte d'Azur airport £130 poorer.

Being doctors and employed now, we decided to ditch the poor student days of travelling by public transport and rent a car instead.
Thank goodness we had our 28 year old friend with us who qualifies for the cheapest rate available.

Our first city: Nice (pronounced Knees)

Villa St Exupery. Our hostel for the first 3 nights.
You know how I sang the praises of the Living Lounge Hostel in Lisbon? This comes as second. Although not as tastefully nor artistically decorated as Living Lounge, Villa St Exupery does the rest as well, including free internet access and wifi, a cheap cheap bar, 1euro per beer - honestly?? and the best bit, dinner at only 6.50euro for a main course, 5.50euro for pizzas with your choice of topping and 2euro per humongous brownie.

I recall that Living Lounge was 10bucks for a 3 course meal.

Anyway. 6.50 is pretty darned good for a proper big plate of meat-with-sides dinner in France. So good that we ate 2 dinners out of our 3 nights in that place. Breakfast was included too, in the 20+euro we paid for 1 night, although it was a basic meal of bread, 10 types of cereal, coffee, tea and hot chocoloate.

Loved it.

The exciting stuff to do in Nice includes strolling down the Promenade des Anglais which Kai Lin blandly states, 'This is like Tanjung Muar.'

.....


So much for the French Riviera.

We also did not miss the fruit and flower market at Cours Saleya.

At to which Kai Lin once again quips, 'Like pasar malam.'

.....

So much for France's marketplace.


Some people right, so difficult to please.



We chanced upon this large waterfall on the other side of the hill.


Pure randomness, with water cascading down into a man made pool below.

At 7pm we got chased off by the park guards which rode about in a scooter blowing their horn AND whistle at every other living thing.
Even a couple who wanted to take a quick picture got booted out double quick.

We then explored the Old Town of windy streets and narrow lanes, not unalike Venice or Lisbon's Alfama.

Honestly.

After travelling around Europe for 5 years, every other place seems to resemble every other place. Every church resembles every other church and nothing seem to be too exciting anymore.

Like I said.

Some people right, so hard to please.


In search of this highly recommended restaurant that serves Socca, a local delicacy, we found it and had to Q for 30 mins before getting our hands on this pancake-thing made of a flour+eggs batter - poured into a pizza pan - drowned with olive oil and baked in a stone oven. After it's done, you douse it with liberal amounts of pepper.


Tastes like peppery oily thin pancakes. Literally.
Dirt cheap.

We went home that night with oil sloshing in our tummies and deliberating if we should prescribe ourselves some statins to cholesterol levels.

Intravenous of course.



City No 2 - Monaco

A drive along the coast brings us to Monaco, City of Casinos!

Of course halfway my camera battery had to die so no pictures of it - yet.

We spent a good part of the morning exploring the Oceanographic Museum, Princely Palace and Saint Charles Church. Managed to cheat our way as students with our biometric cards and student visas into the palace(only 3.50euros!) but was solidly refused the student price into the Oceanographic Museum although we approached them TWICE (ended up paying 13.50euros as adults. Students get 50% discount). Wankers. Bah. We are under the Tier 4 UK visa status ok, and that makes us STUDENTS!

Lots of underwater animals in the oceanographic musuem, live and dead. Live wise is quite impressive but I believe Hong Kong's Ocean Park beats them hands down. Dead wise - quite disappointing. Of course, once again, the best is the Smithsonian museums in Washington. However, the view from the top of the museum is good, and its location just at the cliffs overlooking the sea gives it a very 'oceanographic' feel.

Whatever that means.

The Princely Palace was ok-ish and the Napolean Museum whose ticket price is included in the palace ticket was er... boring.

We collected our car 3 hours later and had to pay a freaking 7.50euros for parking.

Babi.

Then we drove up to Monte Carlo - the father of all casinos and sure enough, you see Porsches, Lotuses and a Ferrarri parked outside and .... with no surprise at all.... lots of chinese tourist everywhere. We blended in quite well without anyone giving us a second glance.

10 bucks to enter the casino. No credit to gamble even. Just to enter - ENTER.

Whats this. Haven't even start gambling also lose 10 bucks liao.

But since we were already here, we decided to heck it and enter..... into a casino albeit as grand as Paris's Opera House, is 1/10 the size of Genting's Casino.

Maybe an exaggeration, but with only 3 rooms and one bar, (1 room has about 5 tables for roulette, another room 2 for black jack and the 3rd jackpot machines) if this is not small, what do I call it? Minuscule?

Yep, miniscule.

To top it off, we had to pay another 7.50 for parking.
Truly, only the rich can afford this place.


3rd day - Antibe


Was having breakfast when the boss of Villa St Exupery chanced upon our table to nick our butter. This then led to the conversation of where we were headed to and the recommendation of stopping by Antibe on our way to Cannes. He was brilliant - told us that the parking by the roads were free from 12-2pm and that food in Antibe is as good as Cannes but 1/2 the price. He also gave us a total tourist update of how to get the best out of the area - which we followed to the T.

So started off by trying to search his recommended Antique Market - which we failed to locate.


We however found the slip road he was talking about that cruised along the coastline. Walked down it, found a few beaches and got back to the car to drive along the coastline, down the peninsula before cutting across to Cannes.



No you don't enjoy life much more than we do.




Cannes.

The Film Festival.


No, the Film Festival was not going on when we were there. But, there was this other festival.

To enter this festival Plaisance which is about selling speed boats, yachts and luxury cars, one has to pay. How much I cannot remember, but... chotto matte kudasai... you are trying to sell their products, but I gotta pay to enter to view your products and then pay again if I wanted to buy them?

Wah, so lose-lose situation.

So of course we don't enter.
Learnt our lesson through Monte Carlo casino.


After that we found this tourist hill to climb up to view the city and our overtly cool friend Alex who walks around with his uber cool sunnies takes a photo for us, peers into the camera screen and exclaims, 'It is very dark!'

At to which PT immediately retorts, 'Take of your glasses (you twerp!)'


Hence, the laughter.

I looks ugly hor.
Alex is so cool.

Then a stroll down Rue de Antibe (so boring, same name as the nearby town) led us back to our car because we obviously cannot afford anything.

Despite being doctors and all.


Toulon

Why did we go to Toulon?

For the islands off its coast.

Only to arrive there and find out that the islands are off the coast of the next town.

Thank God for cars.


The Island of Porquerolles

Maybe one of the most fun days ever because we got to the port, and lo and behold - an abandoned fortress complete with its own private bridge.


Randomness.


A good deal poorer from the ferry crossing and bike renting (of course, we abused our student rights again), the team made our way to the famous Notre Dame Beach.

Which is scarcely as interesting as it sounds.


Pebbles, and slightly green-blue water awaited us with seaweed and bits of driftwood clinging along the coast.

Some laid towels down and sun bathed and just behind us was the forest, where you'd have to find a good hiding place to change.

The water was cool, and in the horizon, a few yachts bobbed up and down probably adding a hint of elegance to the place. We floundered around for a while before deciding that it was probably enough.


We had a map denoting the biking tracks and we tried to tackle them only to find out that indeed, we are an unfit bunch.

Even Alex who is so cool with his cool muscles gave up the ride halfway through on the Le Levant Circuit with a difficulty level of average to athletic. Still, we managed some of the easier routes, like the Le Midi Circuit that brought us to a lighthouse towards the south of the island. I suppose the memories of cycling through earthen tracks and navigating around slippery tree roots and large pebbles can only be cherished as it's wholly difficult to put them into words. These reminded me vividly of my youthful days when I donned bicycles bigger than my then small self while trying to keep up with my cousins and siblings when as raced through the rubber trees and palm oil estates in Sitiawan.


Of course, I am as big as a buffalo now.

We left the island at 5pm and made our way up Mont Faron for yet again a bird's eyes' view of the city (all of this French Riviera cities have some hill to look down over the city) and was not disappointed. The narrow and windy road up would make you queasy, it was all we could do to repeatedly remind Alex to continuously keep his eyes on the road and to NOT DRIVE SO FAST!

Happy days.

A mini celebration of my upcoming birthday (at which I will be celebrating it by working nights and doing what I do best, ahem) in the form of a sparkler atop my chocolate melting pot dessert on our last dinner together was probably the icing on the cake.


Another year older, another wrinkle to add on onto my already wrinkly face....

I hereby await the year 2010 to arrive.

Posted by rachelhung at 4:25 PM | 1 comments    
Labels: Gallivanting Across the Globe

YY : 4am tomorrow morning wake up, we go climb Broga Hill

Ok
Ok
Ok
Ok
Ok
Ok
Ok
Ok

Our objective : To watch the sunrise.

So a morning call at an ungodly hour, led to an unprecedented meeting at 7-11 in DJ, followed by an unjustifiable 1 hour drive to Semenyih where Broga Hill is.

Was it in Semenyih? I also cannot remember.

But my point.

So we arrived at 6ish when everything was still pitch black. Like black, BLACK.
And Broga is a hill covered in yes, greenery and stuff so that makes it even MORE black.

Good thing the boys brought torches.

Let me just say the first half of the climb was fairly easy, more of like walking up wide steps. The second half was steeper and more sandy, hence more slippery but with less trees around. There were quite a bunch of people climbing and the human jam started at the steep part where you see congregations of humans stopping to rest. Since it was still quite dark, the mass of torches lit the hill up like a Christmas tree.

Literally.

It was quite surprising to see that most climbers were young adults with SLRs strapped around their necks. Yes. Tooting heavy SLRs carried right to the top. Out of the 8 of us that went, 3 of us brought SLRs.

Why the pain right? Just for that perfect shot.

So did we manage to find the sun to watch it rise?

No.
All we saw were clouds.
But despite the clouds, we still did manage to see the change of colour in the sky when touched by the sun's golden fingers.

Then being Malaysian, we can't go anywhere without food.

Those are Chipster Chips. We should qualify for some advertisement reward for this shot. Carrying the packet all the way up there. Another 100g load added to our already heavy SLRs.





Funny how small things in life can give you such joy when you look back. It was a random suggestion during one of our yum cha nights which lead to me climbing up with my old schoolmates. Despite being in the UK for 5 years and counting, I appreciate my time with them when I am home - I really do.

I suppose the best friends you make are those you encounter during your years of education.

If only we can all go back to 17 again.

Posted by rachelhung at 1:43 AM | 1 comments    
Labels: Happenings Out and About

Ever had those experiences where you felt close to death?

Well, I have never.

And despite the topic, I still remain experience-less in that area, although on hindsight, I did come rather close to it 2 days ago.

Perhaps not DEATH per say, but a pretty close shave to getting my face scarred by glass shards and breaking my bones in a hundred different places, not to mention getting whiplash injury or perhaps a punctured lung, God forbid.

In fact I am actually quite pissed off.

Not that I waved bye to Death, No... or scarring my beautiful fine skin, but because I got yelled at; MAJORLY yelled at - I think the only other person who has yelled at me like that in the past was my mom - and Rachel Hung does not deal with people yelling at her.

Of course, unless it was a policeman who could very easily have slapped a £60 fine on my wrist.

Wait, wait I digress.

The evening started with my fellow house officers and I rushing to the gym - yes I go to the gym now - for a Body Combat class - yes I do body combat now; WHY? Because there really is nothing much to do after work and I want to look at Kate Moss can or not.

I still enjoyed that pot of Ben & Jerry's though. (Who said one can't become like Kate Moss and still eat B&J's?)

Anyway.

Yes, 3 of us hopped into his BMW 3 1.6 dark blue 3 door car, I buckled up at the passenger seat in front, and off we sped towards the centre of town.

Damn, I'm paying £45/month for use of my gym. If I manage to go twice a week, that's about £6/entry. Wah, back in Uni only £2/entry lor.

So we finally reach the town's mega roundabout with about 10 traffic lights (IN the roundabout) to get to the correct exit that we want. Just as we sped around the traffic light, Dr T decides that his BMW can take the corner in Gear 10.

As we round the corner, our centripetal force swung the car into a smooth curve that looked almost like we could make it to the next traffic light before it turned red.

Of course, being a doctor and not an extra from Tokyo Drift, Dr T forgot to take into account the wet roads and the fact that his BMW is from the 90's and does not have ABS built into his wheels.

He loses control.

The car spins 360 degrees.

And again.

And stops.

I have to commend his driving abilities here though, as the stop was an almighty smooth one. NO screeching of tyres or burning smoke like Hollywood.

But it spun around and around all the same.

I think I only realised that we have lost control once the car had hit 180 degrees.
In fact, I remember just thinking WTF is going on, because we were all so focused on the fact that we were late.

At this point, I think I'll make a damn good surgeon. If an earthquake hits, I can still sew up my patient's bleeding aorta.

Out of the surgeon dream and back to the present.

When the car stopped and when I noticed the other cars coming towards me in the other direction - the first thought that came into my mind was....

'OMG. This is embarrassing.'

No no, not 'Holy smokes, they are going to crash into me!'

Thank goodness for the 10 traffic lights because that meant all the cars had actually stopped before and are going at a rather slow pace so they all braked and watched our embarrassment. Pardon me, MY embarrassment.

I'm not sure if my other two mates were pooping in their pants or not.

Anyway, there we were stopped in the middle of the road, taking up 3 lanes. Of course, the car engine had to give up on us and feed my embarrassment more. I was struggling internally to stop screaming out : JUST F***ING START THE CAR SO WE CAN GET OUT OF HERE! and I am happy to say I muttered a very neutral 'uh oh'. Of course, if it was a closer friend, I would've totally BUTCHERED him.

After the 5th try, the BMW started and we gave a palms up to all the other drivers who probably think we are total NEDS (non educated delinquents) to get ourselves into that pickle - and drove on towards the gym.

To be fair, I was totally cool with the whole episode.
I did not think of it the whole 2 hours I was in the gym - in fact a sip of alcohol could've increased my heart rate more instead of that 360 degree skid.

I came out and we were all a-talk and a-laugh as I slipped into the back seat. Music blared (I don't know why all these young doctors like music pumping out of the car til ear-splitting level) and what can only happen next to make the day worse was that we

got

Flagged

Down

By

The

Police.

WTF.

Today is a BAD day for cars and us 3 doctors.

So the policeman comes by the drivers window, jabs his finger at me (sitting meekly behind) and says to Dr T, 'You the driver, your responsible for her sitting behind. She's not wearing a seatbelt.'

And I laugh with relief - I thought he caught us skidding earlier on ... and in fact, who said laughter is the best medicine?

Stupid Reader's Digest.

Because of my silly laugh of RELIEF, Mr Policeman changed his tone from 'I am not going to fine you because you obviously look like a NED and we don't do NEDs' to : ' YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? YOU F****ING THINK IT IS? YOU COULD KILL YOUR FRIEND IN FRONT OF YOU YOU MORONIC CUBE!!! (as in moron to the power of 3)' and continued onto a whole onslaught of aggressively over the top verbal diarrhoea that was, is and will always be: TOTALLY uncalled for, inclusive of statistics on how many people with no seatbelt actually DIE.

Eh, I can tell you how many people with small cell lung cancer die too ok.

Caught red handed, I did what I did best, try to look sorry (quite difficult as I don't take on the whole yelling at me thing) and injected a few tactful 'I agree, sir, I fully understand' with vigorous nodding at opportune moments to appease this cop's anger on how I could've killed us all (including him and his partner in the police car behind).

The final straw came when threatened - why do I say threatened? - Because he says it as: I can fine you right here, right now.

At which I was ready to pull out all stops, play the foreigner card and pretend I had just overcome puberty.

Ang mohs dig stuff like that.

But he cuts to the chase and echo my exact sentiment: 'Where are you from?'

'Malaysia. Yes sir, we don't do seatbelts in the back seats in my country. I didn't know, I'm really sorry'

And Dr T quickly quips in, 'Yes, I am sorry, she is my responsibility, it's my fault.'

Awww, bless Dr T.

Then, he goes on on his barrage of attacking me again with, 'What if your friend here lose control of his car? It's a wet night, the roads are slippery..'

RIGHT.
You know what they say about irony? This is the perfect example.
Yes he DID lose control of his car, yes the roads are slippery, and yes, because it was slippery, we spun the 360 degrees.
Ironic ei?

Aye.

Of course we keep all our mouths shut and once again turn on the 'we are terribly sorry look'.

At to which he finally says, 'When are you going back home?'

'Early next year'

'Oh.'

'Yes, officer, I am really sorry.'

'Well, since you are going home, there is no point me fining you (because you are just going to throw the fine away)' - he didn't quite say that, but I could hear it rolling off his lips just before he sealed them

'Aw, thanks officer. I'll remember forever now, I will NEVER do it again.'

You know, boot licking crap.

'I'll just give u a warning now.'

'Thanks'
'Thanks'
'Thanks', we chime and sat in stony silence until the policeman walked off back into his car.

Think I was embarrassed earlier on? This seals the entire deal.

At to which Dr M who was in the back seat on the way in to town confesses the popper of them all, 'I was not belted up earlier on either.' And we tooting spun 360 degrees.

Well, well, well.

So we did manage to fill Mr Policeman's whole half cooked story of slippery road-losing control-not belted up to the T.

We are just extremely grateful that they did not ask us what our job was t nor were they there earlier on when we spun out of control.

Because doctors and seat belts and losing control of cars just does not fit into the whole, 'I want to help people that is why I want to do medicine' propaganda.

Nope, not at all.
After all, we are here to save the world.

Posted by rachelhung at 12:35 AM | 2 comments    
Labels: Bizzare Observations/Happenings

What do you do when you suddenly receive a load of cash into your account, more than you have ever received before?

Buy yourself a present.

What do you do when you have worked for a solid 3 weeks including the 2 weekends?

Buy yourself a present.

What do you do when you are stuck in a small township in the middle of nowhere?

Buy yourself a present.

What do you do when you have nothing better to do when you return from work (not study, God forbid) and have no internet?

Buy yourself a present.

What do you do with your first paycheck?

Buy yourself a HDTV.

Posted by rachelhung at 2:25 AM | 2 comments    
Labels: My Loves

My Graduation 7/7/2009

Short and sweet, the University of Edinburgh's Graduation Ceremony takes just over an hour to pass their students under its acclaimed hat (quite alike the Hogwarts hat. I am inclined to think JK Rowling got the idea from my uni, afterall she IS from Edinburgh) with a 'tap on the head', signifying an end to our university days.


I have never understood why I pay obscenely high fees to study medicine in the UK.
Still, I've been dishing out the cash for 5 years now and yes, for the uninformed, my graduation cert, which is a flimsy A4 paper printed with possibly HP's Bubble Inkjet Printer (or even maybe Dell's, God forbid) costs a whopping RM 1 million, give or take.

Honestly. I will try not to swear here.

And when you think you've overcome the abominably, excessively, over priced years of education, one can look forward to what is supposedly the happiest day of your life, before marriage that is (or perhaps not for some).

Yet, we can never escape the gyrating wheels of money laundering by our higher education centres. To graduate, I had to pay £40. TO GRADUATE. Yes, yes. To be allowed to graduate, I had to pay £40.

And then, comes the renting of robes. £35. Not down payment, mind you. A one off payment.

Of course, being the new generation stylish graduate about to storm the workforce, one must dress to impress.
After reviewing all previous graduands attire, we (please note, I am not that superficial, this was done as a collaborative project between a few of us) came to an unanimous decision that the best outfit will include a FITTED white shirt (please, no loose, straight cut shirts that makes you look like a block of cheese) - the more outstanding the collar the better, cuff-linked-sleeves, a black skirt - this varied, some wore pretty flare ones, some wore normal A line ones, but I highly recommend a pencil skirt (once again - FITTED, NO loose ones that hangs below your knees; or to mid calf - OMG) , and I include another vital fashion accessory - a belt, thick or thin, depending on how it looks on you, or in my case, what is available.
Oh, and finally shoes. Court shoes with HEELS please, no flatties, and really, NO OTHER SHOE WILL SUFFICE. Full stop. Black patent leather looks the coolest, of course you can go for bright colours if you want to look a bit like a clown, or you can choose the uber cool colour I got which was dark purple. Do Not Forget Stockings.

It's all about the planning people. How do you think Beyonce looks like Beyonce?

On that day, for heaven's sake, please put on some make up. I know, I know, we are all about au naturale, going green and sh*t, but put all those selfless thoughts and Mother Naturey goodness aside and be selfish for once. You need to look good. GOOD dammit. Do you want to look back in 10 years and see how your pimple twinkled so distractingly in your pictures? Or how your face looked like a patchwork quilt of browns and yellows, or even, how small and droopy your eyes were? When you can overcome all these imperfections with a magical wave of the mascara wand?
NO.
Stop thinking that people will appreciate your natural beauty and that you are still young at 24, 23, 22 or whatever age you are when you graduate. It is irrelevant.
Wake up, grow up, it is time to compile your range of beauty products, time to master the art of make up and utmostly, time to tooting START using what was created to help women look better. I agree 100% with the term - there are no ugly women on this planet, only lazy ones. Well. Maybe 99.9%. The remaining 0.1% will just have to go see a plastic surgeon.

Att: Please note that I do not advocate the overuse of make up. If you turn up looking pasty white and as colourful as if you are about to make your debut as an extra on the West End's Phantom of the Opera Masquerade Ball scene, I'd say, please just accept your natural beauty, imperfections and all. Or, pay for a professional make up artist. If money can solve a problem, then it is not a problem.
If you can graduate from a UK university, then money should NOT be a problem.

So 5 of us got our white shirts from TM Lewin, because, did you know that it is actually bloody hard to find white shirts in the UK?? There are no G2000's around. Marks & Spencer's looked promising, until 3 of us girls were advised by the sales assistant to try the children's department because their sizes goes up to size 16.
Uh, EXCUSE ME MOI?
Must be because Kai Lin (who looks about as thin as the average chinese Malaysian girl whose BMI is 15) asked. But I was there and I am sure I am an average angmoh girl's size, of normal BMI (aka bigger than 90% of the average chinese Malaysian girl) heck, I'm even taller than that silly sales assistant, and you DARE ASK ME TO GO TO THE CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT!?!?
Someone needs to fire her. Or educate her regarding clothes.

At the end of the day a few days, I finally put my entire outfit together.
A white shirt from TM Lewin - £25
A black skirt from Zara - £25
A pair of purple patent leather shoes from Faith - £25
Thank goodness the belt was free, although it is definitely the most expensive item of my entire outfit - still, it was bought from before so I shall not be including it in my overhead costs.


In total, I paid £150 to graduate.

I love the way money is made in the circle of life.

And then, of course, let's not forget the additional items that the university adds to squeeze the last penny from you Just before you leave their wide halls and elaborately carved arches forever.

A picture of the entire year - £22
A Latin inscribed script of your cert -£20 (£23 for EU grads, inclusive of VAT, yay, we untung £3 here)
A DVD of your graduation ceremony - £25
and the one thing that everyone WILL get - professional photography of you and your family, which I paid £127.


I think I should consider opening a university of my own.

My Graduation Ball 9/7/2009

£100 for the ticket, which included a champagne reception, a 3 course meal in a marquee at Mellerstain House (with high class hotel-like portable toilets), ceilidh cum dance band, transport to and fro, a late night snack bag, free Lush soaps (one that can prevent MRSA, really!?), half a bottle of wine each, port, and a bouncy thingy outside the marquee.


Having a tag saying Dr. Rachel Hung is really quite pleasing. It cost me my daddy RM 1 million. Let's not forget that.

Mellerstain House. Owned by Sir and Lady Haddington. 1 hour out of Edinburgh. In the middle of nowhere.Expansive land, with fountains, statues and what not, no wonder it HAS to be in the middle of nowhere. Considering I stay in a 10 feet by 4 feet box room, paying £320/month, I think I'd quite like to pay for a palace in the middle of nowhere where I can allow my kambings and lembus to run free.

The marquee and it's entrance:


It's amazing how they can build a gate from nothing. No wonder the ticket cost £100. Still, I'd be quite happy for it to be £50 and in a Princes St hotel in the MIDDLE of Edinburgh.


Anyway, once again, the same rules of getting a nice outfit, doing hair and make up applies, although this is pretty standard for most people as I am very sure everyone has been to a ball or other. Hm. Make it quite sure.

I was a bit disappointed that so few Malaysians went. But I understand that they might not enjoy it, and the price is honestly very steep. I had double thoughts myself. However, like Victoria puts it, it is after all, OUR graduation, and no matter how bad the night will end up (of course it won't, just wash it down with alcohol) we will look back in 10 years and fondly remember the night that was.

Aye.

I've officially graduated.

Dr. Hung at your service.

Posted by rachelhung at 12:10 PM | 0 comments    
Labels: Medicine