A night out

Thinking that I've not been out for quite sometime, I agreed to join my mum and sisters for a trip to Jalan TAR on saturday night. Furthermore, I needed to find batik that can match my kebaya top since raya is only 2 weeks away.Although I generally hate shopping and not that excited about raya now with everything that has been happening, but hey, I still need to look good on the day right?

As expected, the traffic was bad (although finding carpark was surprisingly easy) and the market was jam packed with people of varying smell that made me feel dizzy at times. But overall,it was actually a good night out. Had some quality time with my family although we spent most of the time just to find the 'perfect' green tudung for my mum to match her raya clothes. I myself managed to buy two batik to match my two kebaya tops but most of all, I felt more motivated and cheered up by the time I got home that I found no problem sleeping at night for the first time in days. Not bad eh?

Anyway, I'm supposed to pack all my stuff today since I'm moving out next week but so far, I've only managed to pack some books and clothes and nothing else. It is more difficult to go through things that can trigger a trip down the memorylane particularly photos. My options now are either to just leave them behind or get somebody else to do it for me. What do you think?

Long and winding road -The Beatles

The long and winding road that leads to your door
Will never disappear, I’ve seen that road before
It always leads me here, lead me to your door

The wild and windy night that the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears crying for the day
Why leave me standing here, let me know the way

Many times I’ve been alone and many times I’ve cried
Anyway you’ll never know the many ways I’ve tried

And still they lead me back to the long winding road
You left me standing here a long long time ago
Don’t leave me waiting here, lead me to your door

But still they lead me back to the long winding road
You left me standing here a long long time ago
Don’t keep me waiting here, lead me to your door

Footnote: Yup, the last few years have been a long and winding road for me. But it's all over now and I'm looking forward to a fresh start of a new life...scary though...

New directions

This past week has been a real experience to me... overwhelming I'd say. Not only a major (expected?) change in my personal life but also careerwise. Yesterday morning my boss suddenly called me up to her office and offered me a new position. It was totally unexpected since I didn't even know that she was in the middle of reshuffling the organisation. I've been given till monday to think about it but I think it's very likely that I'll take up the offer.

Don't get me wrong.. I really enjoy what I'm doing now and since HUKM is the benchmark for Clinical Pharmacy in Malaysia (that's what people say anyway..), my hope was and still is to see our clinical team to flourish and get the recognition within the hospital that they truly deserve. But this new job offers me a new experience that I've never had before, a taste in management. Knowing how much I love clinical pharmacy, my boss is kind enough to let me continue with my wards cover with this new job. But frankly, I'm not sure whether I can manage running both jobs at the same time...so, we'll just wait and see.

Anyway,

I've added to the links two new blogs that I recently discovered.
To Gaby: welcome to blogsphere!

Lowest point in life

Have you ever wished that when you go to sleep at night that you don't ever have to wake up again the next morning? That's how I felt last night...

Have you ever wished that when you go to sleep at night, you'd wake up the next morning as someone else and have no recollection of what had happened to you in your previous life? That's how I felt last night...

The truth is... I still woke up this morning as the same old me and I'm still living the same life.. Is it bad? yeah, it still sucks. But when I went up to my wards this morning and saw some of my patients fighting just to be alive, I knew that however bad my life is I'm still blessed with good health, true friends and loving family.

Atleast the vicious cycle has now come to an end. The next few days/weeks/months are going to be difficult but what other choices do I have. The only way is to persevere and hopefully I come out of it with my sanity still intact...

The Star 21.10.2004

Surprise surprise... Our Pharmacy Dept was named as one of the qualified smoking cessation service provider centres in The Star a couple of days back. You can't really see from the clip but I can tell you that we're the only hospital pharmacy listed! We however had mixed feelings upon seeing this... Proud that we're already being recognised but at the same time just a little embarassed that we don't really have proper settings yet to run a proper smoking cessation programme. We don't even have NRTs to give away! And we already received a call from a patient asking about the service on the day the advert came out! 

Question time

Raya is still 3 weeks away but I'm already excited about it since I'll be going back to JB this year. But I can't help thinking of what is going to happen when I see all the families under one roof with all the small kids running around. One question that I will surely be asked is 'Bila nak dapat anak?'.I'm quite used to it by now having to hear it countless time in the last 4 years at gatherings and weddings. But this year is going to be particularly tricky since 2 of my cousins are heavily pregnant and supposed to give birth anytime soon. I normally would just answer 'Takde rezeki lagi' with a smile or 'Ntah..' when I'm not in the right mood. But I wonder now...why do these people need to ask that particular question? After 4 years, aren't they tired of asking just like me tired of answering? Don't they know that it is not up to me to decide? Do they seriously think that having kids is not in my life agendas?

Going to school/ college reunions or bumping into old friends can sometimes be tricky too. The question normally asked is not as above but 'Dah berapa dah anak?'. Answering with 'nil' or 'zero' will normally be followed by uncomfortable few minutes silence. But atleast it is not as bad since quite a number of my friends are also in the same boat. And I bet those who are still singles at my age are worst off than me. The question of 'Bila nak kahwin?' is even trickier to answer I would think!

Basketball get-together

Cempaka people at our place for dinner (and swimming.. and karaoke... and cards!) 

KL Open (W)

'Wizards' at KL Basketball Open in cyberjaya about a month ago... 

Has anybody lost a pet??

I know this is nasty but I just couldn't resist it! To whom it may concern... 1000 apologies! It's just so cute that I have to share it in here... but I promise, it will only be online for a few days! 

Counselling week 2004

This event has long gone...but with all the hard work by the people involved especially SH and PY, it's only fair that I highlight it in here.

For those who don't know, counselling week is when all the pharmacists and house-pharmacists (i.e. trainee pharmacists) are all out in the main lobby of HUKM giving free testings and advice on many common diseases such as heart attack, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, obesity, quit smoking etc. We don't diagnose (we're not doctors!) but we only explain about the management of the diseases i.e. how the drugs work, why they're important and how and when to take them. We also explain on the pathophysiology of the diseases if needed as well as giving advice on non-drug management such as diet and exercise.

The main aim of the week is to educate the public of their own health status and hopefully to promote compliance to their treatment. We also prepared posters and leaflets that went out like hot cakes.

Here are some of the photos of the people in action... well done guys!
Hope the event will be bigger and better next year!

I'm alive!

It's been long since I last blogged. I didn't even realised that my blog was hacked until a few weeks ago. But luckily, even with my limited programming skills, I still managed to clean it with minimal permenent damages. Pheww...

And boy.. there are so many changes in blogger itself! More user-friendly I'd say...

Good job guys!

p/s just realised that I've lost my comments...again! *sigh*