Cross-section

This is going to be a long one. It’s so long, I had to use MS Word to type it out before posting it here. This is what happens when you let too many thoughts ruminate within the brain for too long.

I got this quote from the movie “the happening”, “People are comforted by numbers, more precisely, percentages, even though it doesn’t reflect the actual situation.” Let’s run through some numbers. There are 8 weeks within a rotation. That’s 2 months, or 56 days, or 13444 hours, or 80640 minutes. Within this time frame, one is required to learn about a new topic that one have not encounter before. Quite large time frame if we are looking at that. However, 50% of waking time will be used for lectures, role-playing, ward rounds, on-calls and all the other official teaching; 10% of that spent on necessities like eating and hygiene, and 20% of that on sleeping (or 5hour/day if you want). That basically leaves one with about 10% of time through out the rotation to actually sit down and try to learn the new subject. You might argue that learning is done within that 50% of official teaching, but let’s be honest, just how much is retained during that period? Let’s not forgetting that official teachings only cover around 60% of the required knowledge, the other 40% needs to be self directed. Given all these figures, I suppose you can see where I am heading with this posting.

I don’t like the paediatric rotation. Don’t get me wrong, the kids are grand; the babies are cute but too much is asked for within too little of time. I am actually struggling at the moment. A MO in the department once told me that medicine school is based on knowing how to bull-crap at the right moment with the right nonsense. That is what I am doing now. If I get asked a question, chances are, I would have no clue to the answer. Sometimes I will just say I don’t know, other times I would just say something that sound intelligent enough to get me through although I would have no idea what I just said. It works most of the time, but not always. There is one doctor who seemed to catch onto the fact about me doing this and love to torment me on it. I had to spent 4hours in that doctor’s clinic experiencing the torture. Not forgetting too that she basically “implied” I am stupid in front of the whole class.

Which brings us to my second topic. What’s the deal with superiority and arrogance? This is something you only see in Malaysia. Everyone on the lower tier is expected to bow down and kiss the feet of the higher ups. Doing otherwise only earn you a one way ticket to oblivion since the high ups will ignore you, or worse, harm you; while the lower downs will use it as an opportunity to kick you out. The latter will not only stay away from you, but actually give you the extra shove to fall head first into the bottomless pit. This is the one thing I have not been able to recover from since coming back from Dublin. However, at the very least I still have the good sense to keep my mouth in check when there is a risk of harm. That doesn’t mean I am contented with things as they are. In actual fact, I am hating this very part of me. I can only imagine it’s going to be worse the next time in the working environment. Seems to me this whole country is run in that exact manner through out the whole system, similar to the medieval times of serfs and knights.

Anyone still read the papers nowadays? Rallies are illegal; “opposition” is bad; etc? I had to drive through a rally just the other day at botanical gardens. Youngsters as young as 18y/o were in it. What was the rally about? “Let’s together fight crime”. It’s exactly rallies like this which I despise. It’s one thing protesting about things that matters, like the ridiculous price of petrol at the moment; it’s another thing when you have to walk in a huge group for something so trivial. Rather than just shouting about it in the streets, why not use the energy for a solution? Simple things like crime prevention awareness projects and changing the mindset of people would had been more effective. Anyway, the rally isn’t what irks me the most. What really annoyed me was the amount of personnel deployed for this rally. There were a substantial number of RELAs and polices around the route. Traffic was still held up. Such amazing use of resource. That was spoken with a tone of sarcasm by the way. Interestingly, this rally didn’t make it to the front page or any pages after that for that matter. Seemed like the only rallies worthy of mention as those with a political motive. I shall not go on further, but I suppose you can figure out yourself my ulterior motive on this paragraph.

Speaking of politics, let’s go back to my favourite class again. One would just need a little observation skill and one will be able to enjoy a very dramatic play being unfold in front of you. You shall be the protagonist, while the antagonist will get hurt, get beaten up, be in severe pain, manipulative, and many more. A great drama to be watched on the dumb box, really pathetic to see it in real life. I don’t know about how the outside world works, as mine is only within the confinements of these plays, but I do know real life isn’t like this. I could never understand why do people play such politic games/ drama plays, even when there is nothing to gain from it. Is it insecurity? Is it for future gains? Is it in-born? Nobody will ever know.

One thing I do know is that this confinement is horrible. I am really looking forward to the upcoming Bangkok trip. At the very least, I will be back on the road travelling again, even if it’s just five days. With luck, maybe I will meet interesting people along the way again. It’s quite daunting that I can’t hold a decent conversation with people outside of medical circle. I have tried to hid the fact I am in this circle when talking to people outside of it, but the most I succeeded was five sentences before something related to medical will slip out. This was precisely the very reason I forced myself to go take as much photos as I can. While I truly enjoy photography, the will to go do there is hardly there anymore. Hence, “the force”.

Time is but a limited tool that no longer have spares.

Then again, if I think about it, this whole rant is just a repetition of the usual thing I call life. I shall end this with a picture of a cute baby with a bittersweet story. More on her another time.

Paeds started two weeks ago. I have never been so lost in a rotation before. I am a walking blur doll. I didn’t even notice there was a set of identical twins in the wards until one of the specialist pointed it out during night on-call. Night on-call is ridiculously boring. We were so bored till the point we started walking from one end of the ward to the other end of the furtherest ward we could walk to; walked back; and then took the lift up to the highest floor it could go and back down; repeat ward walking. The whole chaos that is the paeds’ ward combined with noisy kids is giving me a headache too. Afternoon classes are so long I regularly fall asleep in it, much to the annoyance of the professor who always seem to stand in front of me. I am usually exhausted at the end of the day. Juggling everything else about life becomes a chore. Most of the time I prefer to just sleep.

Earlier, Krish had randomly met a bunch of UCD final meds who completed their studies and are here on a holiday. He asked the three girls out and invited me along. I called Ben along. The six of us end up having hawker food and drinks in Ferringhi. Anyway, the point isn’t about going out with the bunch of random strangers. The point is, while talking to them, I reminiscent about Dublin. I guess in the end, I never did manage to fit back here completely. Life back in Dublin was much manageable as compared to now. It isn’t about how heavy workload had become, but instead it’s about the general lifestyle and people there. Sigh.

Long weekend, went down to KL. On the way back, we stopped at our favourite chicken rice shop in Ipoh. Try and spot what is wrong with the following photo?

Well, firstly, that is Elaynie the malay girl. Nope, the place is not halal; even when the chickens are all slit at the throat. (You have to bleed it in certain manner and also say a prayer too) So why was she eating there with us? She went vegetarian. =p Poor girl sat there eating Tougeh and Kuey Teow only. What to do? We loved our chicken rice a lot.

Anyway, I went back to Crag Hotel today with Nal. Took some heavy duty equipment up there to shoot, only to realise the batteries in my slr ran out. Being the CR2 type batteries, I couldn’t find any of them in the stalls at the top of the hill. So in the end, I couldn’t shoot any 35mm b/w as I wanted originally. Instead, I used the 120 films to shoot and avoided the polaroids. Will probably develope the films over the weekend and see the results. I am still not done with the place yet. Will try and go back one of these days. Nal enjoyed herself so much, she asked me can I bring her to Relau mansion. I told her we will do just that when we have time. I do still want to explore the “opium hall” behind that mansion.

Speaking of time, I have already started one week of paeds. It’s been a very busy week. We basically spend about four hours in the hospital in the morning. have lunch, and it’s back to college for multiple 1.5hr long lectures. It might sound like a typical day in college, but this is very different. Unlike previously, we do not have break time in the mornings. No more running off to Rawter for roti canai as we please; and no more sitting around the MO/nurses room doing nothing. The paeds department ensure that we are always on our toes. Prior to this, I have never feel any aches in my legs. Now, I usually can’t wait to just sit down come lunch time. Lectures are much longer than usual too, and the amount of information given is a lot. Usually by evening, I wil drained of energy. It doesn’t really help that paeds, like o&g, isn’t really one of my favourite subjects. I can’t deal with kids. They are almost a different species altogether, complete with their own language, culture, and wrath. As soon as they start getting all teary, I will start fumbling. Hopefully the amount of toys I manage to get over the weekend will prove useful in the coming weeks. The donkey on my stets had proved to be popular before this and was nearly kidnapped many times by different kids.

A continuation of the previous entry. I went over to the police station on the following monday and approached the traffic summons office. I explained to the officer the situation and he removed the “parked in front of bus stop” fine immediately. He didn’t even ask to look at the photos. In the end, I just paid off the RM30 illegal parking fine. Says a lot about the fine that was issued to me, don’t you agree?

Anyway, after Thursday exams, I drove back to KL that very evening. Krish treated us to an amazing dinner in Tanjung Malim. Food was really delicious. I especially loved the prawns fried with coconut flakes. 

 The next day, I bum around the house for a while before heading out with Yoong for more exploration. The destination this time? Somewhere along the ktm office and train station. Located along that street is a building that used to be known as the Majestic Hotel. It was built in 1932 and still stands today, although in a much worse state. In the 1990’s, the current building was converted into the National Art Gallery. Within the building, we discovered a room filled with metal frames, which I suspect is used to store prints. Two guards currently live within the premises. They told us that YTL was given the plot of land and that there are plans to restore the place. However, as all things malaysian, they are still waiting for “approval”. More photos at my flickr site.

We visited the Heritage Station Hotel too. It’s located within the old train station. The roof access on the hotel always give a magnificant view of the train station. The bath tub that is rather out of place on top of the roof provides amusement too. Anyway, I found within the wall of the hotels a sketch of PGH in its olden days. Take a look.

Apart from exploring, I basically spent my time relaxing at home; playing with the two dogs, do some reading up on the new rotation (paeds…don’t start!), finish up my story books, and revamping my website. Do take a look at the new website and give your comment. It is no where near completion yet but the basic layout is more or less there. I decided to remove the old stuff and concentrate more on my “abandoned” series, street photography and some artsy stuff I do occasionally. It will, however, take a while before I complete website. I am taking my time on this.

Azrul was in Penang yesterday. As he had some time to kill before flying off in the evening, I took him to Penang Hill to a location that we been eyeing for a while The place is called “Crag Hotel”. It’s located a few hundred metres away from the peak. In fact, to get there, you need to walk pass a small jungle trail and a dodgy wooden bridge. A year and a half ago, the hotel was set for demolition and planned to be replaced by a wood museum. In fact, the surrounding land was actually cleared off for that very project. Thank goodness, as all things malaysian, it was carried out in the end. The plants has recaptured the surrounding land again. Once again, this forgotten building was left on it’s on. Crag Hotel was actually built in 1929 by the same people who brought us the E&O hotels, the Sarkies brother. It was very popular until war broke out. It was subsequently left to rot. In 1955, the buildings was converted into a school, but even that didn’t last long. High rent prices forced the school to move out. The last time the hotel saw any activity was when the film “indochine” was made. They used part of the buildings as props, even going as much as adding wooden carvings on the edge of the roof. In fact, I have a suspicion that some of objects within the buildings might not be the original items too. The building itself is actually made to last, as evident from the steel pillars that holds the roof up. Combined that with concrete stairs and such, you have a very sturdy building that will last a while. If it’s actually done up properly, this little corner of penang hill can actually be a great hideaway. The two hours I was there was barely enough to properly cover the whole place. I planned to return there again, perhaps with better equipment. The place is surely a treasure chest for people who likes to explore such places. Check out my flickr site for more photos.

 On another hand, I received a nice surprise upon coming down from Penang Hill. I got issued a summon for illegal parking and also parking within 30ft of a bus stop. 30ft, logically speaking, is a substantial distance. It is almost 100m or to put it in perspective, about 55 of “me” lying head to feet. The bus stop by the way, was on the opposite side of the road and there wasn’t even any markings to indicate that it is a bus stop. As for the illegal parking, the whole stretch of roads actually had cars parking all along it. This is not the first time I am being issued a summon for illegal parking, but what irks me is that the police only issued my car the ticket, while the other cars with car plate number beginning with “P” do not get one. Even more ridiculous is the bus stop offence. I took the ticket to the police station earlier, the officer asked me was there a bus stop box on the floor, I explained that there wasn’t any and I have photos to prove it. He told me that they probably made a mistake and that I should speak to the appeal officer. Guess what? That particular officer do not work weekends, and I have to return there again on Monday or pay RM100. The double standard of the policeman who issued the ticket is irksome!

Anyway, I forgot to write about the two places I went last Thursday, “Mansion no.123″ and “the jungle house”. Both of these places are located near where I stay in the middle of town. They were abandoned for some unknown reason. As these are not well known places, I can’t provide much details on them. All I can say is that the architecture on the buildings, especially mansion no.123 is quite unique. Who ever thought of putting durains motives as wall decoration?

After this post, I have to put my exploring activites on hold for now to prepare for the upcoming o&g xams. The good news is, o&g is finally over after this exams. Quite a relief.