the food of love

i was not born in KL, neither was i brought up there, nor do i live there now. i'm glad i don't spend a large amount of time caught in grid-locks commuting to/from work or worry about the high cost of city living. but i do envy KLites that they have ERL/KLIA & megamalls.

and KLCC, or more specifically the dewan filharmonik petronas, home of the malaysian philharmonic orchestra.

my colleague CK is a subscriber to the MPO & last week he offered his 4 tickets for the family fun day today. sure i grabbed them, as these tickets are often hard to come by (he was suitably reimbursed, i should add). this is the 1st time for the son. although i doubt he appreciated the pompous array of skilled musicians, he managed to sit through the whole performance lasting just over an hour, to our relief, showing more interest in the green-coloured lights on the ceiling than the melody. i myself was unfamiliar with the repertoire of pieces (but their effects were no less soothing) with the exception of william tell overture. no big deal - even older kids recognised it as i noticed a few mimicking a horse's gallop as the brass instruments blast away.

however, what is glaringly obvious to me, as was in previous performances that i've attended, is that the majority of the players are caucasians, although this has always been touted as the MALAYSIAN philharmonic orchestra. a count of musicians listed in the souvenir programme revealed that of the 100 or so names, only about 5 sounded local. hey, even the conductor for the day, a very youthful malaysian-looking jason lai, is british & speaks with a heavy accent.

isn't that strange? don't we have more than a handful of distinguished musicians in our midst? i know of many, many parents (myself included) who start their pre-school children on piano lessons, some even playing several other instruments. so, where are the end-products of this strenous training in music? are there only a few who excel? are there only few opportunities or platforms to display their talents? or, do we face the stark truth that playing music professionally (in an orchestra) just doesn't pay the bills? & that we just aren't ready to have our very own ensemble??

ah, questions, questions!

however, petronas is to be applauded for making it possible for malaysians to experience for themselves the wealth of foreign talent on display in a concert hall that bears its name - at very affordable prices, too. some performances literally go for a song (ha , ha, pun intended!) - starting from a modest RM10 per pax for the family fun days. there are even some weekday chamber music that only require your attendance.

another big pat on the back for petronas for the much-appreciated coffee/milo break on the way home.


& thanks also to the hot.fm roadshow team for the generous fuel voucher.


it WAS a lovely day out at the city.

indeed, if music be the food of love, play on!
(or as abba would sing,"thank you for the music!")

*PS this is NOT a sponsored post*

the pig cometh

Happily, there is at least one occasion in the whole year that the family all get together at the parents' place for a meal & it was certainly worth the wait. kid brother came with wife & daughter Kim, while kid sister, still single, came alone. i was the last to turn up with my family.

kid brother is senior manager with a bank in s'pore. i'm really glad he's doing well because i still remember the 1st year or so after graduation that he spent unsuccessfully looking for a job, both in s'pore & KL. that was probably the reason that his 1st girlfriend broke off with him - a real pity because we really liked her a lot. it became known later that it was her father who convinced her that a guy without a job is not a consideration for a long-term commitment. it was a sorry sight, when you lose someone though no fault of your own. he went back to s'pore to study further, after which he finally secured his 1st job - as an exec in an IT firm. he changed jobs a few times & along the way met & married his (2nd) girlfriend, who bored him cute & adorable Kim, now aged 3 years. & true to the rags-to-riches theme, he is living happily ever after.

kid sister is the proverbial rolling stone. she's never held a job steady for more than a few years but she's never without something to do. a street-smart person from years dealing with small-scale businesses, she made it out on her very own, very much like kid brother. currently, she freelances as emcee/DJ for promotions & events, helped in no small measure by being multi-lingual. oh yes, she's s great cook as well (previous a restaurant chef) & for this occasion, she whipped up a delightful century-egg porridge. & between she & kid bro, they bought enough food to last the dinner & lunch the next day.

this reunion was a tad different. in constrast to the previous years, this time the kids finally got along like a house on fire - Kim has revealed her extrovert nature & my soon-to-be-5 son revelled in this discovery & they connected like long-lost cousins. they played trains, chased each other & shared sparklers. this of course helped foster a closer tie between the sisters-in-law.

so, this is how the year of the pig started out for me. hope you all had a great reunion & have a safe trip back again. but watch out for those PDRM guys with speed-guns - the RM150 fine is so, so, so NOT worth it!!

you really don't want to receive one like this!

happy & blessed new year, one & all!

paul

paul of tarsus by rembrandt (1635)


last week the pastor encouraged each of us to have a paul, a barnabas & a timothy in our christian lives.

very simply, a paul to lead & inspire us, a barnabas to walk with & encourage, & a timothy to mentor to. right away, i knew who my paul would be. SL is a very dedicated doctor & faithful disciple of God. he has been doing missionary work for as long as i can remember. after coming out from med school, he went thru the mandatory postings at the various public hospitals before going on to medical missions. when i 1st met him a decade ago, he was on a break from a stint in nepal, as a surgeon in a missionary hospital. that was when he encouraged me to join him because the hospital lacked the essential skilled expertise due to poor management. when things were really bad, he was the surgeon, the anaesthetist & scrub nurse rolled into one. i passed.

before i knew it, he was already in east africa, again doing God's work. & again he asked me to join him. amidst tales of cerebral malaria, contaminated river water supply & poachers with firearms, i backed off. again.

he's in india now & he was back here on vacation when i met him again last week. his dad had a fall & has been admitted to the hospital where i work, which provided ample opportunities for us to catch up. he'd regale me with his experiences trying to treat patients with limited resources & against stubborn bureaucracy, occasionally hinting but most times overtly trying to convince me to join him. but it did not escape my observation that he truly cared for his dad. he's number 7 (reinforcing my belief that if there ever was an ordained number, it would be 7) of 11 siblings, & being a medic himself, he must have taken upon himself to feed, clean, turn & be with dad. but that was not enough for him. dad, although he attends church, has never confessed that Christ is Lord & it has been SL's prayer for years that dad accepts Christ before time ran out. one morning, dad woke SL up (who spent nites by dad's bedside on a easy chair) & told him he is ready to embrace christianity. apparently, in his dreams, an elderly bearded man came by his bedside & repeatedly said "amen" to him, as if prayers have been said for him. just like that. truly a day of double blessing - that one more soul has been saved & that there still exist a filial son who loves his earthly dad as much as he worships the Heavenly Father.

solomon, in his wisdom, sang praises to the children of God:

"sons are a heritage from the Lord,
children a reward from him.
like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."
psalms 127 : 3-5

SL is such a child of God & he will always be paul to me.

caesarean section, anyone?

Caesarean section is an obstetric procedure where the baby is delivered by an incision through the mother's abdomen & uterus, as opposed to a (normal) vaginal delivery. this is carried out when the baby cannot be delivered safely the usual way, eg. big baby, small pelvis, abnormal placenta, etc. it is, however, not without risk (read here) to mother (infection, excessive bleeding, delayed bowel function) or child (breathing difficulty, accidental surgical injury, neonatal deaths), as revealed in a recent study. (read the abstract here or the commentary here)

therefore, one would not consider a C-section unless the well-being of the mother or baby is threatened. but because obstetric practice, anaesthetic techniques & neonatal facilities have improved dramatically over the years, these risks have correspondingly diminished. in fact, it is common nowadays for parents (read : prospective fathers) to request for a C-section to be done (esp in private hospitals) on an auspicious time & date, more so if the 1st born is a boy.

in another recently published research paper, it was discovered that tiny blood clots are seen in the brains of a staggering 26% of babies born vaginally, most likely as a result of compression of the baby's head during it's passage through the birth canal. (read the abstract here or the commentary here). although it is currently not known if this has a significant outcome in the health of the babies born this way, we would do well to exercise caution & not react in a knee-jerk manner. it would clearly be unwise to be swayed by the result of just this one paper & start consulting the calenders & making a beeline for the obstetricians' office, insisting on a C-section!!

be that as it may, i can foresee countless enquiries being made on this matter, once this study becomes widely known. after all, which parent would not be unduly concerned about the health of the unborn child?

but i can confidently assure you that C-section babies are certainly NOT intellectually superior than their vaginally-delivered peers. i was born by C-section & i have NEVER been top of my class.

i rest my case.

p.s. although the true origin of the phrase caesarean section is unsure, it is NOT attributed to the roman emperor caesar, who himself was probably NOT delivered that way.

where your treasure is

i read with sadness about the woman who mourned over, amongst other things damaged by the recent floods, a table (today's Star ), & with good reasons, too.


it was on this table that her 7 children did their homework, where provisions were kept & most importantly, where the family had their meals. isn't it intriguing that of all her possessions, this humble table meant the most to her?

different people treasure different things - family heirlooms, antique furniture, classic cars, mp3 players & even pet cats have all, at one time or other, been objects of adoration. for my daughter, it's her "security blanket". she's had it all her life, literally. she was swathed in it the day she came home from hospital & while other blankets have come & gone, tattered & discarded, this one has stood the test of time, again literally.

blankie when awake...(a few days old)


.....when asleep.... (1 yr old)


& good old faithful 12 years on.

i have a few prized possessions myself. the monopoly game mum bought me when i was in primary 6 has remained with me till now, although it has seen better days since my son started playing (& messing) with it.

the original red & blue dice are missing & the play-money looked like they should be returned to the bank of england. still, it's playable.

i still use this 20-year-old shirt to work, although it's a little (just a little!) tight at the arm-pits.


my then girlfriend (now wife) bought it as a birthday gift when she was working in s'pore. it was obviously manufactured using good material & under stringent quality control.

the pedigree is obvious......


.....& prominently displayed.

it is sort of a "lucky" shirt for me because i had worn it for all my post-grad exams.

because many things mean a lot to us, we are sometimes overly pre-occupied with them, like the new car, the breast implants, the well-paying job, etc. to the point that it may become an obssession. i have been accused (& rightly so!) of hurrying home from saturday shopping just to catch the live EPL match. after all, it is true that :

"for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." luke 12:34in the event that some are amassing, & yet burdened by the load of untold possessions & wealth, we have also been wisely counselled :

"but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth & rust do not destroy, & where thieves do not break in & steal." matt 6:20
may we all embark on the right path to eternal happiness.

amen.

living next door to porky

I don't know why she's leaving, or where she's gonna go,
I guess she's got her reasons but I just don't wanna know,
'Cause for twenty four years I've been living next door to Alice.
Twenty four years, just waitin' for a chance,
To tell her how I'm feeling, maybe get a second glance,
Now I've gotta get used to not living next door to Alice.

that was smokie's hit song the year i finished 6th form. our class had 1 final get-together right after the HSC exams (now called STPM) - a day trip to desaru/kota tinggi waterfalls, thus ending a year & a half of comradeship & camaraderie. we had started out cautiously as a rag-tag group, picked from 6-8 different secondary schools in the district, & as we all shared the same route towards pre-university education, friendships were forged, strangers became buddies & we all became one. those were 2 of the best years of my life.

1 girl stood out in that group. she was affectionately called porky because she was very thin (i kid you not). however, she made up for her lack in girth with a friendly disposition & lively spirit, & that endeared her to me....er....i mean, to our class. she eventually went to study at the univ of canterbury, NZ, then came back to work, got married & migrated to NZ. we met again with some of the gang once during chinese new year & it was a most enjoyable 1-night-stand.

reunion : the prequel (circa1987)

the reason for this bout of nostalgia is the orbituary in last week's papers of someone i had known from primary school. i called my friend K & she confirmed that our ex-schoolmate had indeed passed on. that prompted me to suggest that we (meaning she) should organise a 6th form class reunion, because we never officially had one since we went on separate ways. i'm glad she agreed - i must have sounded convincing when i reminded her of her sterling effort, as president, in a hugely successful rotaract club fundraiser decades ago. our reunion is tentatively planned for end of this year. so, watch this space!

yeah, for 1 & 1/2 years, i've been classmates with porky & i've never told her how i secretly felt. but i think she somehow knew.

30 years on, & i've already gotten used to not sitting right behind porky in class.

long live florence nightingale!

we are all familiar with this nursing icon.

born in 1820 into a well-to-do english family in (surprise, surprise.) florence, italy, she went against her parents wishes for her to take the expected role for a woman of her status, ie. marry & become an obedient wife. her decision to take up nursing, a career with poor reputation (has this perception changed 2 centuries on?), caused untold distress to her family, esp her mother. however, her subsequent contribution to the nursing care of wounded allied soldiers in the crimean war (england, france & turkey vs russia) is legendary & appropriately led her to be honoured "the lady with the lamp". so much so that nurses these days have been called nightingales.

my mother was an assistant nurse (a rank below a staff nurse) with the government clinic (school health section). she worked office hours except when there were epidemics (eg. cholera & typhoid in the late 60s), then she had to do shifts to provide vaccinations round-the-clock at the causeway. as was her forte, she took care of the family's health. she sponged me when i had high fever, cooked porridge when i had poor appetite & dressed my wound with gauze & flavine when i was injured (this was before the advent of band-aid) . she single-handedly put me through varsity before she retired, & for the last few years, she's been a full-time care-giver to my father who has taken ill.

so, how do our modern-day nightingales match up?

in my line of work, i cannot but deal with nurses, from the students to the trained & near-retired; i've enjoyed working with them, treating them as members of the healing team. but i really just can't help noticing that the quality of student nurses recruited for training has nose-dived over the years that i've been a medic. in each batch, most are average with the occasional outstanding one but, by & large, the rest are just.....clueless. & clueless student nurses eventually become clueless nurses.

this situation cannot be good for health, pun intended. i saw an advert for a nursing diploma placed by a private institution(which is accredited by the national accreditation board, no less!) & was startled that the minimum qualification was credits in BM, maths & science, & just a pass in english. to me, that means in this era of online (english-language) medical/nursing journals, multi-slice 3D CT scans & robotic surgery, you could very well have gone through arts stream with just a smattering of english, & voila! you could theoretically be nursing a critically-ill patient with a few drug-eluting stents implanted under full anti-coagulation.

maybe i'm just being overly dramatic.

am i?

i encountered a nurse the other day, supposedly trained in intensive care, who is not able to explain the various ventilatory modes of a mechanical ventilator. would you like to be the patient with severe pneumonia (lung infection) with a tube inserted into your wind pipe, tethering between life & death, & this is the nurse rostered to look after you? incidentally, this nurse is a foreigner, recruited as a temporary measure to fill in the vacancies left by our own nurses who have gone to the middle-east in search of greener pastures (oases??). i mean, RM9000 a mth tax-free plus accomodation & airfare vs RM1500 is a no-brainer, right?

(what's the quality of our foreign nurses? this quandary is no different from the domestic maid situation. how often have we lamented about the problems perpetuated by these foreign maids? if we pay them RM450 a mth & our neighbour offers SGD600, in whose kitchen would they, esp the good ones, rather cook? anyway, i digress.)

so what we have is a nursing shortage partly caused by an exodus to the middle-east (& elsewhere), & in order to attract school leavers to join the profession, private institutions have sprung up, offering diplomas & requiring only mediocre exam results. so, as for medical courses, in our hurry to fill in the missing numbers, have we compromised on the quality of students? the health minister gave a hint of this here & here. & what about the lecturers & clinical instructors at these institutions - are there enough full-time, qualified teachers to propagate the art of caring & healing? so many variables, so much uncertainty.

which reminds me of what yoda said of anakin in episode 1 : clouded, his future i see.

long live florence nightingale!

1st blog for the year

there are 3 new experiences in my life today....

blogwise, i got tagged for the 1st time, by just me.
so, here are 5 things you don't know (& probably don't want to) about me :

1) i'm not a natural writer/blogger. i can't blog intuitively or spontaneously, will mull over days/weeks to think of something to write & will labour 3-4 days to complete it. goes without saying that i don't enjoy writing essays in exams.

2) i would like to bungee-jump but haven't because i'm scared & shouldn't because it's in my PA policy's exclusion clause. i try to put on a brave face when i tell people that my family needs me too much!

3) my life runs in circles. when i was young, i wanted to be a doctor, then an accountant, teacher, bus conductor, professional footballer, mechanic & engineer. now that i'm a medic, i wonder if i could have been as good as david beckham - make USD50m a year & have a pop-star wife.

4) my favourite music piece is pachebel's canon in D maj. i have burned into a CD no less than 14 variations, including the electric guitar & trumpet versions. my favourite is still the piano & i made sure my daughter could play it from memory.

5) the 1st novel i ever read was jeffrey archer's kane & abel, prompted by the made-for-tv miniseries starring peter strauss & sam neill. the disgraced ex-MP (& ex-convict) has remained my favourite author.

internetwise, i finally got connected to streamyx, yay! data transfer may be fast but it took a whole 2 wks from application to getting the DSL signals - ok, there was the new year weekend, but TWO WEEKS?? oh, this non-IT-savvy nerd also learned a few new terms as well, like router, wireless modem, SSID & encryption key.

& finally, churchwise, my daughter will be singing for the 1st time as back-up for worship today. i'd like to think that i led by example, although i've now moved on to teaching sunday school. may she sing from the heart, & not just from the song sheets.

& paul reminds us :

"fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training & instruction of the Lord." eph 6:4

should auld acquaintance be forgot....?

was in penang last weekend for the annual year-end pilgrimage - for some unknown reason, we seemed to spend our christmas breaks there.

after a leisurely 5-hr drive (did remember: speed trap, speed trap!) we were there by late afternoon. traffic was a breeze & thanks to touch 'n' go, crossing the often congested penang bridge was easy. without hesitation, the 1st stop, as always, was the hawker stalls, as we had a late breakfast & had skipped lunch. after a delightful course of char kway teow, hokkien mee & pasembor, downed with brown-sugared soya bean drink, we were ready to take on penang.

after putting our stuff at the in-laws', we headed for bukit dumbar. this green-lung in congested jelutong provides sane reprieve in terms of open space & recreational activities.

lots of space for football....


tai-chi & children's playground....


& a view from the top.

when i started working in penang years ago, eden restaurant was synonymous with good tasty western food at reasonable prices & all through the years, in my opinion, they have never failed to deliver. they even have a branch (really, a misnomer bcos this is larger than the original one) at the batu ferringhi tourist belt. i still remember the very popular set lunches at RM7.90++ those days, consisting of a warm bun, soup of the day, main course meal, ice cream & tea/coffee - what a lot of food for that price!! it costs over twice now, but still a grand deal!

so we decided to have dinner at the original shop on hutton lane. they used to have 2 shops, each just 2 doors away from the other, but i suppose competition is stiff as there are nasi kandar/mamak stalls aplenty just a stone's throw away along penang road. also they now offer set dinners at RM24.90++ & that it was only half-full on a saturday night betrayed that things are not well. the black pepper steak i had was top-notch, & so i remain a loyal eden patron.

the next day we checked out the new queensbay shopping mall. naturally, the parking was almost full by the time we got there at 11.30am, probably because it's still free for now. lots of window-shoppers but few buyers. the best place to be by a long shot, has to be starbucks. located within the premise of borders on the 2nd floor, the glass wall provided a panaromic view of the pulau jerejak, the sea & penang bridge. taking in that picturesque scene & with a good book in hand, that latte will last some hours.

you know how it is said that the world is a small place but i can tell you that penang is even smaller. bumped into ex-medic classmate dr C at the apple/ipod shop. funny, he couldn't recognise me when we had just met last year at the reunion, & i don't think i've changed that much either. exchanged work & family tales - he's a physician at 1 of the many private hospitals there & his eldest, a girl, is going for A-levels in uk next year. it seemed only yesterday when he was tops in the anatomy clinicals.

then bumped into dr L & his family, with whom we shared many a meal in sheffield, UK when we were both in the same registrars' rotation. our daughters were born in the same year there - i named mine emma because it was such a typical english name & he named his june, even though she was born in august. he's also in private practice in penang, his hometown.

that evening found us religiously doing our ritual - the almost mandatory hike up penang hill from youth park. emma & i huffed & puffed up to the usual #3 stop where we rested for tea, but this time we raised our benchmark a little & ascended a further (pant! pant!) 15mins to #5 stop.

fairly steep climb


#5 stop in sight


affirmation : #5 stop


snack time!

here again, tea, coffee plus cream crackers & roti kok were offered. medics often advise people not to eat immediately before & after strenous exercise (something about blood flow being diverted to the contracting muscles) but i think a light snack is fine, because i've never appreciated black coffee & roti kok till now, right after an exhaustive hike. there we bumped into a cousin & his wife, both regular hikers & they offered to take us up yet one more level to #7 stop tomorrow. i'll have to think about that.

the next day, we were at the chowrasta market to get some famous tau sar pneah & at the same time, to savour the even more famous chendol, located at lebuh keng kwee, off penang road.

the 2 stalls have been operating for ages &
for some reason, the one on the right (below)



seemed to attract more customers. in terms of taste, i have no preference
but the stall on the left (below)

did have more ingredients. no matter, because almost without fail,
i'll have a bowl each from both stalls.


the red beans used to be much bigger
later, we met the cousins for the hike. you have to hand it to the penangites - they eat well & yet, they exercise almost religiously. the car park was already half full by that time - at 4pm in the blazing sun!! we took a different route up, but no less easy.


apparently, the hash house harriers had been there.


however, #7 stop was just a spot between stop #85 further up & #5 below, which we achieved yesterday. an anti-climax? the descent was a stroll.

this has been an unusual penang trip. i planned on meeting an ex-primary school classmate william (whom i have not seen for over 30yrs) but he couldn't make it. instead, i bumped into 2 colleagues & 2 cousins. it's always nice when we unexpectedly meet friends & colleagues, esp those we have not seen for some time. in these crazy, crazy times, we need to build bridges more than ever.

so, should auld acquaintance be forgot & never be brought to mind?
God forbid, for we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

blessed new year, one & all!

the other miracle birth

when our daughter was born in 1994, we thought our lives were complete. when she grows up, i hope & pray that she appreciates the care, attention & love we showered on her. i can safely say that she lacked nothing, with 1 glaring exception.

a sibling.

someone she can relate to, talk & play with.
someone she can have arguments & fight things over with.
someone she can also share & love, as much as we have loved her, if not more.

so we prayed. & waited. & waited.

many years ago, we learned that God answers prayers in 3 ways :
A. yes
B. no
C. yes, but not now.

after a long, long wait, we resigned ourselves to the reality that there will just be 3 of us.

& life goes on.

for a few weeks near the end of 2001, my wife had felt "lousy". without any other symptoms to go by, we randomly visited our gynae friend. & lo & behold, the ultrasound revealed an answered prayer - option C. the 12-week-old fetus, nestled comfortably in the depths of the uterus, already had a beating heart!

we were overwhelmed with mixed emotions. happy because we had been blessed with a love child. yet apprehensive as my wife was at an age when congenital abnormalities (medic-speak for birth defects) were a distinct possibility. our gynae offered a chorionic-villous sampling (where a fine needle is inserted through the abdomen & into the uterus to obtain a small amount of placental tissue) as a test for these abnormalities.

after much delibration & prayer, we decided to forego the procedure. come what may, we will love & nurture our child, with or without blemish. for we dwelled on the promise of the psalmist :

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully & wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
psalms 139:13-16

on may 18, 2002 we rejoiced in the arrival of a normal healthy boy. he doesn't know it yet, but he plays so many roles - a son, a brother, a grandson & most importantly, a child of God. so heavy a responsibility on such fragile shoulders!


4-month-old with a blank stare


4-yr-old : future petrol station attendant?

how should we raise this boy? the same way we have done with our girl, according to the instruction of the wise men of yore :

Train a child in the way he should go,
& when he is old he will not turn from it
prov 22:6

BLESSED CHRISTMAS, ONE & ALL!

weekend in singapore

it was an impromptu visit. we had been thinking of spending a weekend away & after much delibration, settled on s'pore. the x'mas lights along orchard road was the attraction & we've not been there for over a year. after securing accomodation just outside of the Central Business District (where cars entering during peak hours pay a levy) we took a leisurely drive south, careful not to exceed the speed limit along the 2nd link, where i have had speeding tickets twice (yeah, some people never learn!) .

at the s'pore check-point, i had to renew my autopass (a prepaid card registered to the car which is used for paying tolls & parking fees) because unbeknownst to me, it had expired. so after getting the passports stamped, i had to go over to the Land Transport Authority counter to renew it. the 2 english-speaking malay ladies manning the counter were ever so helpful & friendly, & the autopass was renewed, with a smile, in minutes. (anyone with a similar satisfying experience at our local government offices, please let me know!)

after checking in late morning, we had lunch at a nearby food court & then we're off to check out orchard road. the lights weren't switched on yet, but the festivities were visibly in full swing - teenagers dressed as elves were soliciting donations, others attired as santa clauses were promoting the shopping complexes & the x'mas trees & buntings were prominently displayed. unashamedly, even biblical texts were not spared :



but i can understand the audacious attempt. singapore is a wholly secular state (try this in malaysia & the city hall/town council guys will dismantle the signs before you can say " ho, ho, ho!" & fine you for putting it up without approval in the 1st place - & no, they won't close 1 eye on this matter!!) & the retailers will do anything to garner sales because s'poreans love to shop. the affluence is obviously palpable. the cars on the road say it all - beemers, mercs & volvos & many other foreign marques hogged the roads. the working class strut around in the latest fashions, talking on the fanciful camera-PDA-phones & sipping designer lattes at SGD12 a pop.

i met up with an ex-colleague whom i had the great pleasure of working with when i was in s'pore in the mid-90s. kenneth was the exemplary medical officer - he's intelligent, determined, has an extremely affable personality & well-liked by everyone because he....er....leads by example. i know i can rest easy when i'm on-call with him because he will capably handle most of the problems that may arise. he has been appointed consultant for some years now.

over udom, tempura & green tea, we caught up on old times. he's just gone into private practice - oh, did i mention that he picked me up in his new spanking volvo S60? - which surprised me because he was such a loyal worker in our previous hospital. apparently, the new head of department has brought in drastic changes - far too radical for him to remain in the dept & though he is obviously happy where he is now, i can sense he still misses his old job.

the next morning, we checked out early & went on the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) trains - the kids just loved the ride. they're on par with our own LRTs in terms of comfort & safety, with 1 major difference - convenience & user-friendliness because the same ticket can be used when changing trains. stopped briefly at the esplanade & chanced upon an exhibition of metal wire figurines by a local sculptor :



guess anything can be art these days!

so, with all that x'mas festivities going on, what did i get myself? an archeological study bible at 30% off :


tell me if this was an impulsive purchase.

imagination

Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination,
and if you saw,
he's what you call a dinosaur sensation!!

barney live at alton towers, UK, 2000

how many times have we heard that chorus on TV & VCDs? & how often have the kids clap their hands in excitement to watch another episode? imagination is a powerful tool of the human mind which trespasses all physical barriers, to venture beyond & breech the virtual divide. so powerful that, even in kids' minds, the purple dinosaur & his friends come alive to play with them. how much more can the adult imagination achieve?

last nite i had a strange dream - isn't a dream similar to having an imagination while asleep? in it, i met 1 of my previous patients, one whom i've not seen for 20yrs. yeah, i know what you're thinking - 100's of patients & decades in practice, how come i remember this particular one?

well, this is one whom i became friends with later on. she was a teacher who came in for a tonsillectomy & we clicked from 1st of the the daily ward round. initially it was just friendly banter & social small-talk, but by the time she was due for discharge, we've started teasing & taunting, as if playing a cat-&-mouse game. we did finally go out a few times - yeah, i know this kind of doctor-patient relationship is an absolute no-no, but hey, i was young, impulsive & a swinging bachelor ruled by raging hormones - & this is the 1st time i've had a blast with someone of a different race & religion. yes, this could have been love but life has its own way of determining its path, turning the corner or expediting damage control. i got a job overseas & the distance put paid to whatever great plans we had. we wrote a few times & then there was silence across the physical divide.

of course, it would be nice to bump into her again but circumstances have changed but i'm convinced we'll remain great friends. there's this other girl i would have loved to meet again. we were introduced by a mutual friend after the MCE (now renamed SPM). she was the rich girl from the next taman. her dad was a lawyer, she lived in a bungalow, had a grundig colour TV & her mum droved a merc. oh yes, & she had the hots for me. she used to ask me help solve maths & physics problems for her - that's like asking johnny b goode to play the guitar! ha ha, some days i'd feigned difficulty, only to impress her with a spark of inspiration before conjuring up the answers. (actually, these were questions from past-year papers which i've already diligently prepared for the MCE - but would i tell, while basking in glory?!!)

but yet again, d i s t a n c e got in between. i did 6th form & she left for taylor's in KL to do grade 13 before going over to canada (rich girl, remember?). i still have her toronto address but she has since moved. this reminds me a lot of the movie grease - except that i'm not hunky like travolta, she couldn't sing like olivia & we didn't end up in the same high school. but we sure had hot summer nights!


so, koliza & kathleen, wherever you may be, may God watch over you always. thanks for the endearing memories & may you both live forever in my imagination.

oh, to be popular!

just how do you measure a person's popularity?

in a fair election, this is decided by the number of legitimate votes. in reality talent contests, this could be determined by the number of SMS votes. if you're a blogger, the hit-counter shows & if you're dead, you could be deemed popular if there's only standing room at your wake. but if you're an average joe, like myself, who's still alive, has no political inclination & can't sing to save your own life, how would you know?

the crowd at your farewell function may not count because there will be people who can't wait to see the back of you. ditto for birthday parties because no one turns away from free food. i think a reliable indicator is the number of birthday greetings received, be it via email, sms or the near-obsolete memory lane card (this should score brownie points because you actually have to go to the shop to buy it) , provided it wasn't meant for someone else & it was received not later than a week after your birthday.

think about it, to remember a birthday you have to take the trouble to :
1) look up the date, or
2) ask for it, then
3) actually remember, or
4) record it, then
5) set the alarm if stored in your organiser or cellphone, and finally
6) say out or send out the greeting.

&, for some, like my so-called friends, that's a lot of trouble to take.

unfortunately, for most of us, as we grow older, it is likely that the numbers will dwindle (at a rate much faster than the hair loss) because people move away, have other circle of friends, forget us or have passed on. that's ok since it's a natural progression of life events. hopefully, someday when our paths fortuitously cross again, we'll carry on from where we left off the last time, like good friends should.

incidentally, yesterday was my birthday. outside of the family circle, i received a card from the new bank officer i've been dealing with lately, & a sms each from my insurance agent & 2 (yes, two!) old flames. & that's already 4 more than what i had expected.

ah, things are certainly looking up for this old geezer....

grass on the other side

couples living together without getting married is as common in the west as fish & chips. cohabiting is also not a totally new concept in malaysia, either. the reasons they give include saving on house rent, sharing the washing machine & spending as much time as possible together. some see this arrangement as a prequel to the main event (marriage) - a trial of sorts to determine if living together permanently is a viable option. a bit like trying on clothes before the purchase to see if the material feels comfortable or if it's tight at the crouch.

sometimes the trial period is too brief to discover if the other person lives like a pig, & sometimes no amount of trial will uncover the bad habits & shortcomings.

years ago when a close friend K needed a change of jobs, i asked him which of the 2 possible options he's lined up was his preferred choice. i remembered his saying that it would be a dream move to have YC as a colleague. YC is a pioneer at another medical centre & his exemplary reputation had preceeded him. obviously K was thrilled to death when YC personally vouched for him & invited K to join in a partnership (marriage of convenience??).

the "honeymoon" lasted only 1 week before disgruntled feelings & displeasure emerged, mostly YC's. it wasn't long before K realised YC was hard to please. it seemed YC relished being in charge of things - a "control freak", in K's own words. he wants things done a particular way, usually to his own advantage, & naturally would not budge from his stand. K , being the junior partner, put up with it for a whole year - he filled in for YC when the latter was unavailable to fulfill his responsibilities, did stuff which YC distanced himself from & at the same time, sacrificed his own free time to carry out those additional duties - before things came to a boil.

K decided enough was enough & "filed for divorce", one that was almost as acrimonious as michael douglas & katheleen turner's in the movie "war of the roses". except that nobody got killed here. however, accusations were hurled, mostly by YC, & tempers flared, mainly YC's.
they went on separate ways & it was years later before they got back on speaking terms. however, one can still feel the simmering heat in the background.

so, is the grass greener on the other side? there are single men & women who think marriages are made in heaven while some married couples swear that marriage is an institution from hell. K thought YC was the perfect partner until the ugly side reared its head. i received an sms some time back which cheekily declared that getting married is like going to a restaurant - you order what you like, then wished you had what the other guy is having.

my own simplistic 2sen worth of opinion is that marriage is an act of faith, a journey of hope & a commitment of love. no period of cohabitation will make it work - if hope, faith & love can't get the job done, nothing will! didn't paul the beatle sing that love is all you need? even better is to heed the advice of paul the apostle :

"do not be yoked together with unbelievers. for what do righteousness & wickedness have in common? or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" 2 cor 6:14

hooray! school's out!

my daughter should be posting this blog. but she isn't. yesterday's the last day of school for the year & in her case, last day in primary school. i asked her if she'd like to have my camera (& i even offered her new batteries) to capture in digital print moments commemorating a passage of rites with her classmates/teachers she may want to keep for posterity, but she politely turned me down. hey, what gives???

my parents never owned a camera & i got my 1st only in med school. looking back, i now despair at the numerous precious memories that now only reside in the dark recesses of my mind. if i had a camera when i was 12, imagine the stories, illuminated with photos, i could have come up with!

i have a faint recollection of my last days in primary school but i still remember some of the teachers vividly. mrs thumboo comes to mind 1st, followed by puan rahmah & mr brockett. puan rahmah was the primary 1 class teacher & i was her "pet". she liked me so much, she even asked me, on more than one occasion, if i would be interested in one of her daughters. up to this day, i still do not know if she was teasing.


primary 1 : pn rahmah - mother-in-law??

mr brockette is eurasian (my 1st encounter with someone so big & fair-complexioned) & primary 4 class teacher, schooled in british tradition in hong kong & a true blue disciplinarian - he could very well had been the headmaster, except that the latter was even more fierce than him!!

primary 4 : mr brockett - disciplinarian

there were also a few trainee teachers who, despite their brief sojourn, endeared themselves to my classmates & i. mr nathan came in at primary 4 - he was a really likeable chap & we tried to help him as much as we could. i remembered his appeal - that during his assessment, when he asked questions, as many of us as possible should put up our hands, whether we knew the answers or not. but we felt sorry for him because he failed in his stint with us. mr boh ooi chek, a batu pahat boy, was with us in primary 6. he was truly "one of us" & i really missed him when he left. i wonder what he's up to these days - should be enjoying retirement by now.

but what i do remember clearly of the good old days is that school holidays is for.....er.....holidaying, be it a few weeks with the grandparents, hanging out with friends/relatives, going on a vacation with the family. or even just "lepak" around at home. but none of that sedentary stuff for our modern super-competitive parents/students. as i write this, i know for sure plans are afoot for day classes, night classes, tuition classes, extra classes, motivation classes, memory improvement classes - any thing that will make sure the students stay ahead of the competition.

hey, doesn't anyone know how to be a kid anymore?

shakespeare in life

to be, or not to be.immortal words. the only bard i could quote, since literature was not offered as a subject in my school. no matter, because i managed to pick up some eg. goodnight, goodnight, parting is such sweet sorrow, & some i learned the hard way eg. hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

mr C has AAA. nope, that's not his credit rating & he's neither a member of the automobile association nor alcoholic anonymous. he has an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm - an abnormal bulge in the main artery in the abdomen from a weakness of the vessel wall. it has grown to a diameter of over 5cm & needed to be repaired before it leaks or worse, ruptures - then all hell will truly break lose!

earlier, he had seen the urologist for difficulty in passing urine - typical of a prostate problem for someone his age. it was during a routine abdominal ultrasound examination that it was fortuitously discovered he also had AAA. the vascular surgeon was called in & as this was the more urgent problem, mr C agreed to have the aneurysm repaired 1st. as part of a pre-operative assessment for major surgery, he underwent a gamut of tests. the chest xray revealed that he has a suspicious-looking 3 cm nodule in his lung. unfortunately, the subsequent CT scan showed that this nodule, very likely cancerous, is too deep-seated to be removed without excising the whole lung as well.

to be, or not to be.

it looked like it was not going to be for mr C. he thought he only had a urinary disorder - the prostate surgery could be done in an hour & he'd be out of hospital in 2 days. then we found he also has AAA - the aortic repair could be done in 4 hours, he'd be in ICU for 2 days
& then discharged from hospital within a week. but this lung tumour is a different ballgame & adds a sinister dimension to the scenario. should he have the AAA repair & then to discover that he has incurable lung cancer? or maybe, proceed with lung surgery & then have the aneurysm rupture on him? shakespeare aptly described this scene, also in hamlet :

when sorrows come,
they come not single spies,
but in battalions.the logical way out of mr C's predicament is 1st, to biopsy the lung nodule, determine it's nature & assess if it's amenable to chemothearapy or radiotherapy. then decide the sequence of treatment option for the best survival. not an easy resolution. mr C has but a short time to confer with his family & we await his decision.

i face instances like this all the time, & it only serves to remind me of my own mortality. in my pursuit of dreams & ambitions, i often take for granted the many little things in life whose worth far exceed any worldly rewards. what price do we put on the power of sight, the ability to laugh & the unfailing love of our family? when do we decide that we should be contented with gifts our ungrateful selves have been bestowed upon but don't deserve? shakespeare may not have the answer but the wise men of yore did shed a clue :

give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
otherwise, i may have too much & disown you
& say,"who is the Lord?"
or i may become poor & steal
& so dishonour the name of my God.
prov 30:8,9