Summer ’08 thus far….
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My blog has been idle since the earlier part of this year. Between then and now, many things have transpired, and somewhere in between, I lost my inspiration and motivation (and above all, TIME!) to blog.
This is going to be a short blogpost of what I’ve been up to thus far, which is definitely anything but profound! (and I’m referring to both the blogpost and the things I’ve been up to…)
From April until June, I completed my General Medical & Surgical Junior Clerkships at Southend University Hospital. The hospital was great, but the sand and sea were better! 😀
During one of the Bank holiday long weekends, I escaped from my hospital work and travelled up north to Scotland to visit the IMU gang in Edinburgh. Glen was there too. Visited loads of tourist attractions in the Lothian city, did lots of touristy stuff etc. etc.
Right after the clerkships, I returned to London for my end of year examination. Kudos to the Dawson Hall transfer crew for for our effort in practicing for the OSCE exam! It was good fun. Really.
I returned to Muuuutherland on 17th August. The gym junkie in me ensured that the first thing I did when I arrived back home was to join the local gym. In between burning off calories, I was piling on the carbs, and to this end, Malaysian food pretty much hit home.
I originally had quite a lot of things lined up for the summer, but somehow, ‘administrative work’ and a lot of unexpected turns in my life seemed to get the better of my time. The things I had to miss out: white water rafting in Gopeng with Amanda et al. (sorry Amanda!), and trip to Bentong and Genting Highlands with David and Nicholas (sorry guys!!)
The things I did do:
1) Annual ‘pilgrimage’ to Penang (a.k.a. late nights out, sleepovers, and generally, bugging the hell out of Yew Ewe and co. at Penang Medical College). This year’s Penang trip proved to be much more eventful and fun compared to previous years. (*nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*). It felt really refreshing to reconnect with people from my past.
2) 2nd UKEC Malaysian Students Leaders Summit (MSLS)2008 in KL. I had my (not-so) little sister joining me for this event. Some of the talks/forums were compellingly engaging, while some were just downright bo-ring. I sometimes felt a bit out of place, due to the fact that an overwhelming majority of the participants were either undergraduates or pre-university students(OK la.. I’m NOT that old…). But the post-MSLS BBQ in PJ was good fun, and gave me the chance to get to know more people. Thanks to Chen Chow for letting me in on this!
(Productive) Things that I’ve trying to do:
1)Read up my pre-course notes on animal surgery and anaesthesia for my upcoming UK Home Office Animal License training course in London.
2) New developments in the area of my research project that have taken place in the last three months. I’ve been trying to learn 3D mathematical modelling in order to understand the work of a rival group from Oxford working on a similiar topic. Not fun. It amazes me what four years of medical school can do to deteriorate one’s mathematical acumen. I swear I knew more when I was studying for A-level math, whereas now, I can’t even do simple trigonometric differentials to save my life! (There’s always the scientific calculator, no? :D)
3) Deutsche Sprache learnen. On my own. No classes. Just from books. And have I ever told you that German grammar is insane? No? Well, it sure is. Thus far, I cannot yet string a proper sentence beyond four words. 😛 So much for DIY language-learning.
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(Not-so) Little Sister is coming back from KL today. I’m looking forward to see her again! Yay~