Favourite Places

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Da Vinci Code

Hi guys!
Yest, Harti, Hamid Siti & i went to watch da vinci code at bishan. tickets were selling out so fast even though we came early to buy tt we had to settle for front row seats, which i never knew would be tt bad! wats e pt of making seats there if ppl haf to watch a movie almost horizontally, i ask u! however, gd thing e movie was fast-paced & exciting lah, so we barely noticed e 2hr 45 min pass by. but it ended in such a way tt makes u think, how ridiculous...
well i did haf a pt to this post. siti, we're v sorry if we did blabber away abt med stuff while u were eating...i realise tt it's quite rude but sometimes we get carried away i guess...anyway till e next time we meet again!! was great to see u in ur trademark pink after a fairly long absence...hope u enjoy ur paradise now...
will see e rest of u tmr, dear frens!!

Posted by Adila :: 6:52 PM :: 0 comments

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Tuesday, May 09, 2006

:: Bamboozled ::

The best of friends,
Can change a frown,
Into a smile,
when you feel down.

The best of friends,
Will understand,
Your little trials,
And lend a hand.

The best of friends,
Will always share,
Your secret dreams,
Because they care.

The best of friends,
Worth more than gold,
Give all the love,
A heart can hold.

You guys have given me more than the love that my heart can hold. I cannot describe the feelings I experienced on finding out the amount of effort, heart and time you guys put in to celebrate my 21st. I will remember each and everyone of you for the rest of my life and I want to tell all of you that each of you have a special place in my (hypertrophied) heart. It feels as if I have known you guys for ages although in reality I have only known some of you for a couple of years. I thank God for giving me such meaningful and blessed bonds. I treasure these bonds with all my heart. I now I am sounding so incoherent right now because my heart is swell with joy and appreciation. I don't know if you guys have experienced the feeling of feeling so touched that you are just helpless to say anything. I have been feeling that since yesterday. I love you guys.

Posted by Hamid :: 11:32 PM :: 0 comments

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Sunday, May 07, 2006

:: Pondering Over Mee Siam ::

Hey Adila, I just want to thank you so much for that post because it really set me thinking and I think we ought to be alot more grateful to things we have in life. On the same note, I just want to share a bit of an experience I faced today at my friend Iskandar's place.

I was invited over for lunch at his place with his parents. It was a very unique experience for me as this was the first time I was going to have lunch with two aged people who don't speak the same tongue as me and have only seen me once ever before and they could barely even remember the first encounter. But still, I was received very warmly and greeted with such untainted smiles that burgeoned straight from their heart. My friend Iskandar, you see is quite an achiever. I do not want to disclose personal information about him but just for abit of a background information, he recently completed his military training at Sandhurst Royal Military Institute in England and won the Best Overseas Cadet Sword, a feat that has never been fulfilled by a Singaporean. He also has gained entry into NUS. After a fantastic lunch, I was just sitting with his parents in his living room and chatting with them in my bad Malay. My friend was showering meanwhile. I was looking through Iskandar's certifications from his military training and was telling his parents that he has really performed well and that they really have a gem of a son. They promptly attributed all to the doing of God but added the following that really touched me and made me realise something that might have been obscured due to my priorities and workload. They said that no matter how much he had achieved and will achieve, all they ever wanted was for their son to be happy and to be human. They acknowledged that they were very proud of his achievements and said that he had really worked hard for it which is of course true. But what they told me that really mattered is that they get so much joy from just having him at home, talking to him and knowing that they have brought up their son to be a man. They were so happy that he could take good care of himself away from home. They were happy that he has good friends and has remained to be just a good person. And of course, everything else that came along was the icing on the cake. And as Iskandar was busy being hospitable (to me) in serving me food and drinks, I caught a glimpse of his dad's eye beaming at him and if I am not mistaken, his eyes were smiling with tears. That moment really will stay with me for a long time to come.

Posted by Hamid :: 1:43 AM :: 0 comments

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Friday, May 05, 2006

Chicken soup for my soul

Hello my beloved frens,

I would just like to share with u guys sth tt really touched me today. just now, while my parents & i were walking back to e carpark after dinner, i came across a malay lady with an amputated leg who looked to be abt 60 yrs old. she was being wheeled in a wheelchair by her equally elderly husband. the thing is, her husband himself could barely walk. his posture was extremely stooped & he had a really lopsided gait. yet he continued to push his wife along, leaning forward to engage in conversation w her. so there was e pair of them moving along at a snail's pace, & tt sight alone truly touched me to e core. a short while later, while my parents were buying sth at 7eleven, this same couple stopped by. e husband asked his wife what she wanted & she pointed to a bottle of 100plus in e freezer outside, whereupon e husband then took it out w great difficulty. his wife handed him a cane which she was holding for him & he walked slowly & painfully to e cashier to pay for that bottle of 100plus. he literally had to support himself on the shelves of goods to hobble along e aisle, carrying that precious bottle of 100plus meant for his beloved wife. i was totally mesmerised by this amazing display of love. i turned to face e woman & she gave me a beautiful smile. probably she noticed how affected i was, or maybe i had been staring at them so obviously. i smiled back so hard my cheeks hurt. then, i walked away & started crying. yes crying openly. i cried cos i was so touched. i cried cos i got to witness love in its purest form. i think if a person can find someone who loves her so unconditionally, even half as much, as this man, one who can look past any deformity, flaw, imperfection, watever, then that person must be truly blessed. i cant believe i am crying even now as i write this. i dunno why this incident has affected me so much. anyway, i just wanted to share this w u guys & i hope tt u guys too will be able to find such fulfillment & contentment, no matter wat hardship or diffuclties life throws at us.
love, adila

p.s. hope i'm not being too melodramatic or anything!

Posted by Adila :: 10:02 PM :: 0 comments

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Monday, May 01, 2006

~CSFC and Siti's Bdae Lunch~


In OT scrubs with the silly shower cap all blur and excited!

CSFC started off on a pretty exciting note for us kids at TTSH... you see we had this wonderful plan that we thot was pretty much infallible, which was to meet on the train (me at JE, Huilin at gombak and Rustom and Bishan) but after a long wait for Rustom she realised that she got onto the wrong cabin. Alas our coordination fell flat. Still we were upbeat about the day to come, so we walked hurriedly towards the hospital full of anticipation.. however a time check revealed that we had only 5 min left to find our seminar room and actually get there. So then it was time for proper panic as we all ran around the lobby from one end to another in our heels which was rather difficult i asure you, only to realise that the lift lobby we needed to get to was the one we were originally at. So we ran back much to the amusement of a passing M3 and when we finally got to our room, the briefing had started and we were ten min late! How embarrassing!
Then we received our schedules and saw to our dismay that life was not gonna be so free after all. After some SOC and trooping down to United Square for some free Ben n Jerry's ice cream with the rest of our CG we returned to our first ever OT session. It took us ages to get out of the changing room coz firstly we din noe wat to wear, and after we did figure it out and put on the proper OT gear we spent a great deal of time laughing at each other and taking photos. OT was a pretty basic procedure of GB removal but of course we "oohed" and "aahed" at every small movement and even when they were stitching up, much to the amusement of the nurses and docs.
The rest of the week was spent pretty much trying to get settled into this new lifestyle. We realised that it was indeed tiring starting off so early and ending off at 5 plus, standing on your feet for most of the day and going home only to find out you have heaps to read but cannot read it for the life of you coz all you wanna do is sleep. I guess its still gonna take some time getting used to and trying to figure out a way to work around getting all the readings done on time. I must say that clerking and meeting patients is pretty fun tho. You get to meet all sorts of people and most of them are really really nice and compliant and dont mind answering all the questions once more tho they had already been clerked barely 5 minutes ago. And when you start looking at the people around you and listening to their problems and ailments, you become so much more thankful for what you have right now and you understand why its such a privelege to be able to study medicine. Its most touching when they trust you with all their heart and open up to you, and it makes me wonder whether i can be a good enough doctor one day to deserve all that trust that they so willingly place in me when i am only a blur student.
Which brings me to my next point. Boy does it feel horrid to be so blur! I feel like we are the sorriest lot in the hospital... the blurest of them all. At least I know I am. All that mugging for 2 straight years and when we are out of it all and into practical stuff, we realise we have forgotten so much. And its always so embarrassing to freeze up in front of a doctor when he asks you a question even if it is as basic as 'why do we measure amylase levels in pancreatitis and what is amylase'. I remember Rustom and I freezing on the spot, the word amylase was dancing in my head singing 'you know what I am but you cant remember me now!' It was most frustrating and we felt so silly afterwards but the doc was nice enough to be understanding and tell us to go home and read up. But I guess thats how we learn coz after that incident we can never forget the symptoms of pancreatitis no matter how hard we try!
Oh yes and we and our CG mates have also established our Favourite Places in TTSH that we will gladly introduce to Hamid, Fang and Asroe once you guys get posted there. Basically its a nice corner in the Kopitiam and for short breaks this bench area outside Mr Bean as we sit and watch people queue up for the lovely ice cream. But thinking of them as Favourite Places is so bittersweet coz it we miss all our other Fav Place kakis! We keep saying 'wonder what the guys at NUH are doing now!' Oh but i must say it was so fun to bump into you guys and the rest of the fac in the wards at NUH, like Huilin says its like a reflection of our life in the future... bumping into colleagues around the hospital.
All that aside today we celebrated Siti's birthday (very belated tho) at this place most of us were new to called Olive n Fig where i learnt that Fig is something you can eat and not the wood that the table was made out of. We had a good time with Hamid adding in his laughter soundtrack every now and then and we realised that Siti's laughter has changed! As Adila describes it its now low and husky compared to her previous high pitch giggle! Haha wats up Siti?? (she still not telling us but methinks she might have found her Mr Darcy). Oh well I have made you read more than enough rambling. I ought to hit my Browse ( i really do feel like hitting it!) Have a great week ahead guys and see you soon! Love you all and miss you lots!

the 3 ladies in pink

cheery smiles from yvette n me!

the prize presentation ceremony that followed lunch (it was so pro that it actually took place on the stage!)

and here we have a group pic at Olive n Fig- Hamid the thorn among the roses

and yet another group pic outside the doby ghaut mrt station as siti tried to capture the beauty of the flowers that we are all blocking

siti and aisyah do a bollywood number around a tree as they search for their beloved Shah Rukh

they ended it off taking a romantic stroll while taking in the sights and sounds of the entrance to doby ghaut mrt

a far shot of us and Hamid says its all good

Posted by YFL :: 7:45 PM :: 0 comments

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