Alfred & Carnevale Di Venezia

I should have gone to the Monash Medical Centre weeks ago for my second site visit but then we were told that our school did not make arrangement with MMC. I ended up being allocated to the Alfred Hospital last Wednesday. It was quite an eye-opening experience. Anna and I explored around the complicated edifice under the guidance of a fifth year medical student who turned out to be an elder brother of a friend from a tutorial group. We interviewed a patient with heart blockage and lung infection and listened to another patient who narrated about his experience with appendectomy. His case was a serious one due to ruptured appendix, causing faeces to accumulate in the abdominal cavity and thus infections. Without the immediate diagnosis by the doctor, he would have left his mortal existence. We also visited the Intensive Care Unit and not to forget to mention that we witnessed a cataract removal surgery. It was my first time observing a real-life surgery in the operating theatre. The surgeon was seen removing the opaque firm and putting a new lens into the patient’s eye. The amazing thing was that the patient was awake throughout the operation, only having a localized anaesthesia around the eye. The surgeon even communicated with the patient during the operation. The atmosphere in the operating room seemed to be so casual, with the surgeons chatting and joking around, in contrast to what I have thought. It was after six when I reached Clayton, so I decided to skip the Kendo practice.

On Thursday night, I attended the ASEAN ball – Carnevale Di Venezia – with friends that I came to know from the Easter Camp. It was really a huge event, located at the Central Pier of Docklands. On the week before, I went to a shop in Glen Waverley to get a mask solely for this event and it cost me $59. The worst part was that I didn’t even really wear it during the ball. Anyway it was quite an awesome one.

(Photo taken from Ufi Mart Pty Ltd)

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It had been about seven weeks since the last time I went swimming. I was really short of breath just now, just barely did a complete lap for two times. The tutor told me to try to be more relaxed because he could sense that my muscles were being very tense. There were times when I stopped half way through the pool and he said that: “Try to hold your breath until you reach the other end of the pool. Get a bit more further every time and soon you will be able to make it.” It reminded me of a motivational statement that I read about two years ago. When we want to set a goal, try to set it as specific as possible. “I want to successful; I want to be rich” is not precise enough. How do you define ‘successful’? How do you define ‘rich’? The definition varies among individuals. Having a vague ambition is tantamount to having none. Instead the goals should be restated as “I want to be a well-known architect; I want to earn a million dollar by the age of thirty”. When we have a very clear target, we know what we are going after and we know what steps we should take in order to achieve it. Seek the highest and everything else comes to you.

Anyway, I had been growing sluggish nowadays, didn’t go jogging and swimming for nearly two months already. Since the streamyx connection was set up at my home a week ago, I had been staying in front of the screen for all the times when my mind was being conscious except during meal times. When there was no workout, naturally the body took on a horizontal development. The waist measurement was growing insidiously, from 29 inches before I left INTEC to the current 31 inches. It was not something to be proud of. Though before this I wished that I could gain weight in terms of muscle but unfortunately it turned out to be fat. In fact, muscle is denser and prettier than fat but the only thing is that you have to put in efforts.

Just now, I went to my aunt’s house for a steamboat, at about 10pm. My cousin’s friends were there as well. They were all handicapped in terms of speaking and listening. Sitting with seven of them at the dining table, I couldn’t understand what they were saying at all. There was an Indian among the group but they only used one language, which was the sign language. I used to stay with the cousin but I hardly communicated with him so I didn’t really pick up the sign language. Last time, when I came across the sign language, it was like they have a certain sign for a certain alphabet but I supposed my cousin and his friends didn’t use those because I don’t think they act out every single alphabet to form words in order to communicate. Besides, my cousin was able to understand what we are trying to tell him by looking at the movement of our mouths. There are a lot of times when I feel so grateful because I am blessed with so many things which others long for.

It was the ninth day of the Chinese New Year, which was also the New Year of Hokkiens. Fireworks could be heard here and there, comparable to those during the Chinese New Year eve. The stars were blinking brighter than ever…

Kuoi Khah Pehk

Yesterday morning, instead of repeating the boring daily routine, or to be more specific – to vegetate, I went to my aunt’s house, knowing that my relatives had gathered there to make Kuoi Khah Pehk (spelled directly from the pronunciation). For my friends who don’t know what is that, it is actually a type of cookie, which is usually made before Chinese New Year. At first, I told my aunt that I would be there at 8am but my parents asked me to join for dim sum, so by the time I reached there, it was close to 11am.

Stumbled upon these as well:

The Sound of Silence

I first came to know about the title of this song when I was in Dali of the Yunnan province in China. The song was played in the background when we were at the restaurant of the Landscape Hotel. Freezing cold… Mrs Lim was the one who told me about the name of the song.

Goggling through the internet, I found out that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel shot to stardom through this song. They were later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and won a Lifetime Achievement Award during Grammy Awards 2003. The following is the lyric of “The Sound of Silence”.

Hello darkness, my old friend,
Ive come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
A neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one deared
Disturb the sound of silence.

Fools said i,you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whisperd in the sounds of silence.

Mr and Mrs Lim were in the traditional costume of the Yi ethnic minority. It was pretty cool, don’t you think so?

My 19th Birthday

Quoted from Shu Ning’s blog:

“There was a joint birthday celebration for Chi Hau and Shuba last Wednesday in the Cemara "Starbucks". Despite the rain, Kee, Jeng, Laura, Lee Kuan, Ing Ing, and I arrived, soaked to the skin and cursing our class rep all the way. "CHI HAU DAI SAI!!!" (Swee Kee 2008)

Kee, Jeng, Mariam, Fatin, and I bought Chi Hau an extremely pudgy rat plushie, in recognition of the statement that Jeng had made earlier on that he had put on some weight. Hehe...don't you think there's some resemblance?”

True Light

Mum has been nagging me to clean up the cupboard which was occupied by my school bags that I used in kindergarten and primary school. It took me ages before I finally made up my mind to clear it up. It was last month. Not a whole month, neither was it a single day but a few days. Taking a glimpse at it after so many years, initially I thought there were only a few of them. But then when I withdrew all of them from the cupboard, wow, there were close to 30 bags. My younger brother got a few of them into his possession and I donated the remaining together with some clothes from my aunt to an orphanage close to my secondary school.

It has been more than two and a half years when I first went to the True Light Vision Centre. I could still remember that it was the April Fool’s Day of 2006 when my friends and I went there for a moral project. We had a gotong-royong besides cheering up the children by playing football with them.

For further details regarding the home, please log on to http://truelightvisioncentre.blogspot.com/.

My Shoes

Last Sunday, instead of staying at home and staring at the idiot box – something that has become a routine for my family on Sunday, we decided to go for a shopping spree in Penang. It was my first time of driving to Penang. We were actually planning to buy some new clothes for the upcoming Chinese New Year since it was just around the corner. I didn’t really buy much, just a Padini shirt and a pair of Adidas shoes.

I purchased my first pair of sports shoes in the year 2001, when I was in primary six. It was a Nike Air Reckoning III. This pair of shoes, I would say, was the reminiscence for the past eight years of my life. It reminded me of my primary graduation trip when I was in Singapore, my sightseeing tour in Bangkok in the year 2002, excursions with my high school friends to Kuala Lumpur and Malacca in 2004 and 2005 respectively, not to forget various camps I joined in Kedah, Penang, Pahang and Selangor. It was also a recollection of my infatuation with running events from mid 2006 to mid 2007, a period in which I have joined the Penang Bridge International Marathon, Starwalk, Joy Run on the Batu Feringghi beach, etc. At a night on the year 2005, the bottom layer of the shoes was torn when I was participating in a procession during the Nine King Emperors Festival. Nonetheless, I continued wearing it after it was given a few stitches. Nowadays I only wear it when I go jogging. Since two years ago, my mother has been asking me to throw away the pair of shoes but that is the last thing that I am going to do. It has been with me for almost a decade and there is no way I am going to dump it.

On June last year, I bought a pair of Adidas 561595 in preparation for my life in INTEC. The importance of this pair of shoes should not be overlooked. It was as crucial to me as my other sports shoes. It has been carrying me around Selangor, Shah Alam in particular. Not to mention that it starved with me during the 30-hour Famine camp for two consecutive years. Wearing it every day, I have caused wear and tear to it at a much faster rate.

On 28 December 2008, my third pair of sports shoes eventually found its owner. Initially I was looking for a suitable pair of shoes in a shop in Queensbay, the shop at which I acquired my second pair of sports shoes. Unfortunately I couldn’t find one that satisfied me. After the dinner at Gurney Drive, my family and I went to Gurney. The Adidas TS Creator 060950 at display caught my attention when I walked past an Adidas retail outlet. According to the seller, it was a limited edition, only out in the market on December 2008. I believe that it is going to walk me through various challenges in this New Year.