is it a good time to be a taxi driver?

taxi owners seemed to be getting a lot of goodies this year.

last week, they were promised a set of 4 new tyres a year. yesterday, they were offered rm100 a month for 12 months if they were courteous to their passengers. soon, they may even get socso benefits & group accident insurance coverage.

yeah, it's good to be a taxi owner in election year - only problem is that a permit may costs an arm & a leg.

soon, maybe doctors want to demand for a new pair of Nike Air (for running around the hospital) & extra rm100 a month for being courteous to the patients.

or, teachers may demand a new wardrobe & rm100 a month for being courteous to the students.

but, wait a minute here ....... aren't the taxi drivers, doctors & teachers supposed to be courteous anyway?

another can of worms opens.....

sushi king, anyone?

i only take japanese food once in a while & go to sushi king maybe just once a year. most times, i get the cheaper version at jusco when they sell the day's portion at 30% off after 8pm.

yesterday, my nurse assistant told me sushi king is offering rm2 a plate for all types of sushi. she loaned me her membership card & this was what happened when you go to sushi king only once a year.

this was possible only because i had missed lunch.

Studying

i think this image aptly portrays what my dear daughter is going thru. the can of soda, bar of chocolate & iPod are all frighteningly familiar.

yeah, she's even mentioned the "D" word.

advantage

malaysian students studying in s'pore have one distinct but small advantage over the local students - mastery of the malay language.

what's the big deal, you ask.

no big deal la, except that they make up most of the debaters for polytechnics/junior college teams in the national schools malay language debate. for the local malay schools, the madrasahs, the malay students participate.

my daughter's school, VJC, managed to scrape through the round-robin stage to enter the last 8 for the knock-out competition. the school's debaters are all malaysians.

what's ironic is that in the quarter & semifinals, they consecutively knocked out 2 madrasahs, only to meet, in the final, yet another madrasah, one whom they had earlier lost to in the round-robin stage.

they debate tomorrow. may the better team win. go VJC!!

fickled-minded

after 2 weeks of wan tan mee, char kuay teow, mee siam, roti canai & dim sum, i kind of miss a good full english breakfast.

starting with oven-fresh bread with butter & juice, the main course usually consists of bacon and/or sausage.....

potato patties, baked beans & eggs.

the scrambled egg has a rich yellow colour because it's duck eggs. besides its high content of protein, vitamins A & E, it's also high on cholesterol.

just goes on to show that too much of anything can't be good.

awfully quiet

my daughter has just gone back to the hostel. of the 4-week term break, we spent the 1st 2 weeks on vacation, & she pretty much stayed in her room for the next 2 weeks to revise for her mid-year exams starting next week.

it's not that she is loud or boisterous but the home seems awfully quiet without her presence. one less person at the dining table, one less passenger in the back seat & one less child to kiss goodnite.

we can't wait to have her home again in august!

MAS - rightfully the nation's pride

a lot has been written about the deplorable state our national airline MAS is in, suffering losses in successive years for some time now, despite having gone through several so-called transformation programs. these essentially involved cost-cutting, staff severance & asset stripping, amongst other painful processes.

we flew on MAS recently. the 747 jet looks old & the interior could do with some serious refurbishing. but i have to say, the cabin crew served with diligence & more surprisingly, a friendly smile despite the long haul trip. we had 2 main meals, which were pretty good,  & a snack with plenty of drinks in-between. the in-flight entertainment had recent movies.

even though the recent financial crises & rising jet fuel costs have affected the bottom line, as other regional airlines are similarly affected, ours has been a perennial problem for longer than that. the many management changes suggest that matters are not well at the top.

are we lacking competent & dedicated professionals to run our national corporations? i think not. just look at Air Asia. in the mean time, i hope the cost-cutting would not affect passenger safety.

yes, i've been watching too many episodes of Air Crash Investigation on Nat Geo channel, & a crash is not a pretty sight!

fathers' day

a little token from the kids...

and just to share this.....

blessed fathers' day!

Blessed Day, my Father in heaven!

what's there not to like about england?

well, not a lot.


1) a direct flight takes about TWELVE hours!


2) if your joints ache when it's cold, they still will even in summer - the weather is just too unpredictable!

3) in winter, the sun rises at 8.30am & sets 3.30pm, and the days seem to pass really fast!


4) the ringgit doesn't take you very far - a big Mac alone costs rm20;


5) after 5 days of bacon & sausages/sandwiches/fish & chips/meat pies, you'll crave for nasi lemak or char kway teow & you won't find a warung/food court up your street selling that!


6) if you drive, petrol is rm6.60 a lit!


and finally, if you're a victim of a poor education system and SPEAK NO INGRISH, you'd better off staying home.

what's there to like about england?

plenty, actually.


1) MAS flies twice daily direct to Heathrow;


2) frequent train/bus connections into London & beyond;


3) hotels & car rentals can be booked online;

4) people are generally friendly, courteous & honest;

5) people EXPECT you to be friendly, courteous & honest;


6) free entry into London museums ;

7) travel cheap on the bus/train/underground after 9.30am on weekdays & all day on weekends;

8)some cities charge high parking fees, & therefore provide good Park & Ride services - one fee includes car parking with bus ride into the city;



9) almost always a sainsbury/tesco/asda/morrison everywhere you go, some are opened 24/7;


10) almost always a good offer if you search hard enough;

11) a paradise if you love sandwiches;


even better in summer when the sun rises around 5.30am & sets 9.30pm.....

which gives you at least SIXTEEN hours to explore!!

4 wishes

i wanted to be  here......

she liked the atmosphere here......

he was thrilled here.....

and, the wife was on retail therapy at all three locations!

a leopard never changes its spots?

after 12 days away from home, having full english breakfasts

stew & boiled veggies

sandwiches

scones with strawberry jam & cream,

the 1st things on our minds for dinner were laksa, char kuay teow, prawn mee & cendol. 


once a malaysian, always a malaysian?


PS. nasi lemak? oh, we had that on the return flight.

travelling light

when you travel by low-cost airlines, you tend to travel light because they charge for baggage. but when you travel by full-fare airlines, usually 20kgof  luggage per person is allowed without charge.

we usually travel light &  this time is no exception. with 4 of us, we checked in only 2 luggage bags. the total weight?

28kg.

can anyone beat this?

detoxify

when i told a colleague that i was going on vacation with the family soon, he said it's good to detoxify yourself.

detoxify?

i was stumped for a moment, but then, realised it's an appropriate although unusual description.

of late, it has been rather stressful at work, not only because of increased workload (often seasonal) but also a succession of patients with difficult problems. throw in the contagious bugs & germs, & yes, i'd say the hospital environment can certainly be toxic.

well, i'll be off till the end of school break, & i can't say i'd miss the hospital one bit! also glad the general election is not called while we're away.

cherio, mates!

hiding the truth

it quite common that we will loudly proclaim good news & keep silent on less happy events. when you read the mainstream media, most likely the govt's finest achievements will be front-page news while misjudgments will be consigned to a footnote, if mentioned at all.

after all, who wants dirty linen on public display?

my son certainly doesn't want that either.

that's why he hid his english test paper from us. the wife found it this morning tucked deep into a side compartment of his school bag. when asked why he didn't show it, he cunningly replied it's because we never specifically asked for it. ha ha, i can see where he gets this crafty trait from.

needless to say, he only got 85%. that by itself is average, but will be difficult to accept, considering that some of his chinese-speaking classmates outscored him.

he will be punished - no, not for the marks but for hiding the truth.

i, too, wonder if the govt should also be punished accordingly for hiding the truth?

be careful when flossing

i floss 2 - 3 times a week. most times, when i flossed vigorously, the gums bleed a bit.

last nite was a bit different. while doing it, the floss seemed to get stuck in between teeth. as i tugged firmly with fingers at both end, something popped out. i feared it was a tooth but there was no bleeding.

turned out to be a filling instead.

went to the dentist today to replace the filling.  she said a filling normally lasts up to 10 years, by which time it would have loosened or cracked. i can't remember when i had that filling done but next time the floss gets stuck, i'd just release one end & thread the loose end thru the teeth instead. that would have saved me a visit to the dentist.

with that constant drilling, it's no walk in the park!

a pleasant surprise at the check-out counter

there is a promotion for assorted flavours of bottled green tea at the supermart. normal price is $2.00 each but for this weekend, 2 bottles for $2.85.

so, i got a bottle each of 2 different flavours, amongst other items. after paying, i was surprised i was billed $2.00 & $2.10 respectively for the 2 bottles. on closer inspection, i realised one of the two was a red tea, priced at $2.10 & not included in the promotion.

what was i to do? after all, i had paid & moved out of the counter already.

so, i decided to take a chance. i took another bottle of green tea & queued at the same counter. when i explained my oversight to the check-out lady & asked to exchange the normal-priced red tea with the promotional green tea, she promply amended my purchases & gave me a refund.

no hassle, no fuss.

how about that for exemplary customer service?

have you been frustrated by bad service & bad attitude from the supermarts?

turning 10

i have 2 birthday posts in May. though unplanned, both my kids were born in this month. the girl turned 18 in the last post & the boy turned 10 today.

looking back, this is how he's grown since the last birthday:

1) he's started using underwear. he knows the perils of not wearing it;  read here. 

2) he's sleeping alone at night;

3) best of all, he says grace before meals & prays before sitting for his tests/exams.

Direct your children onto the right path,
and when they are older, they will not leave it

                                                                  prov 22:6

turning 18

i used to think that when you're 21, you've finally achieved liberty. because on your 21st birthday, you usually get a key-shaped present, be it a pendant, a plaque or even a cake. the key symbolises freedom, but from what, i don't really know. not financial freedom, that's for sure, since most people at 21 still depend on their parents for living & education expenses.

now, i think youths achieve an independence of sorts when they turn 18. they can sign consent forms for medical procedures, they are entitled to supplementary credit cards & can operate a bank account on their own.

however, some see this rite of passage differently. i asked my daughter how she felt about turning 18 today. she said now she can consume alcohol & go clubbing.

i chuckled, though i'm not really sure if she was serious about going reckless. remember, she recently ran thru a red light on her driving test?

still, she is who she is, & i love her to bits! blessed birthday, darling daughter!

monkey see, monkey do.

while the food & drinks stalls were doing a roaring business during the recent bersih 3.0 rally, apparently a group of businessmen felt hard done by. read here.

really? did they lose that much? RM100m? in less than one day?

just because the rally was vilified by the govt, they've decided to ride on the coat-tail & claim their spoils. make hay while the sun shines, so to speak.

now, i wonder if they'd use the same figures when they submit their business income tax in june?

false identity?

i was at the wake service of my colleague's father-in-law last nite. at 76, he had been leading an active life till the heart attack took its toll on him.

one of his friends who stood up to speak of him, said he was very surprised that for the 6 years he had known the deceased, it was only recently that he found out the latter's son-in-law is a heart specialist. in other words, he had lived on his own identity, & not by whom he knew or was related to.

that impressed me a lot. how often these days do people like to boast of whom they know & who their friends/relatives are, just to gain a bit of recognition? i suppose you get that a lot in corporate dealings when agreements/contracts needed to be inked asap.

even some of the wives of my colleagues have forsaken given up their surnames & introduce themselves as mrs so-and-so. in the west, a married women is expected to take her husband's name, & some still keep them even after divorce, eg. ivanka trump, bianca jagger. however, i doubt if we are ready to relinquish our asian values at the current moment. furthermore, is there any place or a valid reason for a change in our identity cards, driving licences, passports, EPF, or income tax forms?

anyway, i speak for  myself & all these years, the wife is still known by her maiden name.

the new gold?

Our gold medallist at London Olympic Games stands to become an instant millionaire.

that's a story in The Star yesterday (read here). call me old-fashioned, which i am, but we always talk about the good old days when representing the country in the world's sporting arena was an honour & winning was the one desire in every sportsperson's dream. the prize money, though pittance those days, wasn't much to brag about.

remember the football team of arumugam, santokh singh, soh chin aun & mokhtar dahari? we were consistently the best in south-east asia & second only to south korea in asia. look where we are now despite turning professional?

in badminton, we have no clear chance of winning the thomas cup since 1992, when the razif brothers last brought glory to the country. now only lee chong wei has consistently won at international level while the koo-tan pair (in 2007) & roslin (in 2003) proved to be a flash in the pan at the all-england. unfortunately, squash is not yet an olympic event.

maybe money has nothing to do with our title drought but it sure can be a distraction.

on an unrelated matter, if you support electoral reforms, wear yellow tommorow.

it could well be the new gold.

the wicked truth

truth is not only about facts or reality. it's also what the majority of people agree on.*

like centuries ago, people believed the sun revolved around the earth, or that the earth was flat. they had no scientific proof then, so they just believed because that's good enough for them.

it's just down to perception.

i remember this conversation from the mini-series the kennedys. john f kennedy was worried about how the public would respond to their campaigning for presidency. his father reassured him : it's all about perception & with the right amount of money, we can make people think what we want them to. and as we all know, the younger kennedy was duly elected.

so, perception seems to create a more powerful impact than the truth. perhaps, there's actually no such thing as twisting the truth. just project the image you want people to see you as, & to them, that's the truth.

politics is such a crafty art.

*from the musical wicked

love of my life

my daughter has been asking me to watch the musical wicked with her ever since it started last year. the show will end its run on apr 22, so since i'm free this weekend, i told her to get the tickets. she called while queueing for the tickets :

she : papa, the cheapest tickets are all sold out.

me: how much are the next category of tickets?

she : 95 bucks!

me: ok, go get it

she : it's so expensive! are you sure?

me : it's ok. you're the love of my life.

in a way, i couldn't quite believe i said those words but it's my strong belief, though simplistic, that children brought up in an environment of love, be it propagated by thoughts, words or actions, generally will grow up to give love as well. that said, i must confess that neither of my parents ever said words to that effect to me, although they did show it by their actions of caring for the family. not quite the same, is it?

anyway, i thought 95 bucks is not exactly an arm or a leg, but the time spent doing the same things she likes would eventually prove priceless.

of peas & little batteries

when i was still in primary school, my 4-yr-old neighbour stuffed some green peas into her nose. her concerned parents 1st took her to a nearby barber shop. it must be out of desperation because up till now, i can't figure out why they brought her there, but those barbers manning the shop flatly refused to do anything because the girl was struggling & that wasn't helpful. in the end, they took her to a clinic. don't know what the GP did to calm her down - probably didn't but just asked her parents to restrain her while he successfully removed the offending peas.

fast-forward 4 decades & kids haven't changed much in their propensity to stick things into their noses. this girl, also 4-yr-old, started producing blackish secretions thru one nostril associated with pain. her parents brought her to hospital & she was under general anaesthesia to find out the cause of her nasal discharge. this was retrieved.....

it's a miniature battery, either from an autogate or car alarm remote. the difference between this & a pea, is that small currents flow when the battery come in contact with the moist tissue in the nostril, causing miniature burns. it's been in the nose for 2 weeks & that would explain the black-coloured secretions. it also caused a perforation of one of the inner walls of the nasal cavity.

i imagined, had that been a more powerful battery, would there be smoke coming out of the nose??

another item to add to the "most expensive" list. read here and here

ah......now, that's another change!

my son just changed piano teachers. his 1st teacher, Grace, which i think is a lovely name, passed away after a long illness 2 years back. he's been with this 2nd teacher since, & we did notice over the years that he's neither been too enthusiastic about the homework nor practising at home. he used to play on his own initiative but now, we even have to coerce to get him to the keyboard.

then, we realised to our horror, that this teacher only teaches for 30mins on the piano, then gives out written exercises for the remaining 30mins, during which time, she teaches another student on the piano!

i beginning to wonder if this is the norm amongst music teachers?

now, the new teacher, coincidentally also named Grace, which makes me think that life has gone a full circle, assured us the boy will have her undivided attention for the whole hour. when we paid for the lessons, in advance as is the practice adopted by all music teachers we know, she issued a receipt.

we were surprised, mentioning to her that all the previous teachers just recorded payment in a notebook. she said she pays tax on her income & she's ok with that. she also quoted this from the bible :

"Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” the Jews asked.
Then Jesus said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
matt 22:17, 21

oh, did i forget to mention that her father is a practising pastor?

ah....now, that's a change!

as medicine seems to be the perennial flavour-of-the-month amongst young, impressionable school-leavers, it was indeed a refreshing change that someone else intends to pursue a different career path....

smart boy - not for him are those long hours & late nites his father spends at the hospital. still, it's early days yet & he could change his mind later. after all, i had wanted to be a bus conductor before.

see where i ended up?

iPaid

i'm not that grumpy - only paid for an iPod so far!

do you want to be a doctor?

i received a few queries from SPM-leavers enquiring about qualifying for med school & life as a doctor. as it happened, there is an excellent elaboration on this issue written by a physician in the form of a letter to a prospective medical student. all interested students should read it here.

i can vouch for Dr Wong's impeccable credentials. he was an excellent med student & i am proud to have been his classmate.

next time, drink beer from a can?

people accidentally swallow a variety of stuff. children swallow pieces of toys while adults, dentures, chicken & fish bone. so they come to hospital to have them removed under general anaesthesia.

this chap had a drinking session till late one nite. he must have been stoned drunk because he didn't realise anything wrong till the following afternoon. he felt something stuck in his throat.

his xray showed this:

the close-up:

and yes, he did remember he had quite a few rounds of heineken:

it would definitely be the most expensive bottle-cap in the world - once he gets the hospital bill!!

however, i doubt if he would drink beer out of cans after this. how else is he going to get the pretty promoter girls in tight skirts to serve him? heh, heh!

it's that $%#@&!! time of the year again.....

you know the one i mean?

yeah, the day when the results of the public exams are announced.

which is today.

headlining the news would be the top scorers with a whole bunch of A+s to their names. good for them because, i assume, they worked hard for it.

but what about those that worked as hard but just fell short of perfection? my colleague's daughter really took it hard. she didn't get THE CALL yesterday. apparently, the state education department calls up the straight A+ (not just A, mind you!) students a day before the results are announced to invite them for a special ceremony to commemorate their success.

so, she didn't get the call. she was upset & so was her mother. her father, my colleague, took the news better, probably because, like me, we went through the old system & were satisfied with the ...er...above-average results we got. those days were different, i guess. our MCE (& HSC for 6th form)) certificates were well respected & were easily accepted as entry qualifications into overseas colleges/universities.

as it turned out, she got 10 (yes, TEN) A+s & an A. a near-perfect score which, apparently, is not good enough these days.

in our time, we'd have partied thru the nite!! golly, don't we love those good old days!!

ps. as an after-thought, i wonder how many, if they have a choice, would stay back for the revamped STPM. the education ministry announced recently (& suddenly) that there will be assessment-based gradings instead of just one main exam, from this year onwards in a lab rat pioneering effort to enhance interest in the exam.

the week that was

the one-week school break sure passed by fast.

the girl has been home this whole week but i've not had much time to catch up with her except during dinner time. she did achieve one thing though - she finally passed her driving test. (read here)

the boy did something nice, too. he loves frozen yoghurt & he offered to give us all a treat today, limited to rm20.

as a working parent, sometimes my life is controlled by forces outside my control (read: patients) & there's a real danger that the kids grow up without my being there or my realising the changes that accompany their rite of passage.

so, in a way, i'm glad i agreed for the wife to be a stay-at-home mum.

acceptance

kids are often looking for acceptance from their peers. as students, they join school societies & cliques, & maybe out of school, they join secret societies & gangs.

my son has his own group of friends in school - the so-called english-speaking group. you know the type - speaking english amongst themselves despite being in a chinese-medium school. the other day, this group tormented a girl by calling her names. she cried as she told her mother. fortunately, her mother & my wife are friends & that's how we knew about that incident. when we questioned the boy, he revealed that although the group was verbally harsh to the girl, he just stood there & said nothing. the girl confirmed that my son was just a bystander.

i can imagine the predicament he was in. to support his group & harass the girl or do the right thing & abstain? to consolidate acceptance into the group or to risk alienation?

adults aren't much different. acceptance, recognition or approval - they mean the same, a desire to be part of a group, be it family, work colleagues or business circle. 

i myself found acceptance last week. my daughter finally added me to her FB.

yay!!

i know life's unfair but then.....

it's was one of those difficult on-calls but definitely a poignant one.

11-month-old child with brain tumour which suddenly bled & required surgery. results are not promising & he had to be transferred to a university hospital for further treatment.

70-yr-old man scheduled for neck surgery. on the night before surgery, he slipped & fell in the bathroom, causing a bleed in the brain & requiring emergency surgery. the bleeding had caused too much damage to the brain &, in all probability, he will not survive.

young mother into 8th month of pregnancy. the placenta separated prematurely from the uterine wall causing bleeding. the emergency C-section saved the mother but the baby suffered asphyxiation ( medic-speak for suffocation from lack of oxygen) & died the next day in ICU.

81-yr-old man with bowel cancer scheduled for surgery. 15 years ago, he had cancer in another part of the large bowel which was successfully removed. fortunately for him, the tumour this time was again completely excised.

often i wondered to myself why sometimes innocent people suffer while others who do evil flourish? there's no way we could predict what's going to happen tomorrow. how do you explain to the parents that their 11-mth child will not see teen years, or the expectant mother that her newborn has passed on? what do you tell the children that their father, just 6 hours before a routine surgery has sustained a fatal fall instead, or a man who has developed cancer twice?

yeah, bummer, isn't it? but i suppose if you believe in a Higher Being or a Divine Power, then you'll surrender your life to the fate you've been destined with. life just goes on thereafter.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isa 55:8, 9

fear of the unknown

we are gripped by fear everyday.

fear of price increase of everyday needs.
fear of war outbreak in the middle east.
fear of radioactive contamination in the east coast.
fear of losing political power in putrajaya.

in hospital, the managers fear for declining profits.
the doctors fear for declining patient numbers.
the heads of dept fear for nurses shortage.

and, the patients fear for their medical condition & their ability to pay the bills. on the operating table, they fear for the outcome of their surgery. whenever i sense such fear in the patients, i try to reassure them. if they believe in God, i offer a prayer for them. if they are muslims, i invite a muslim colleague to berucap with them. & of course, if they have a request for a prayer item, eg. from a medium or temple, that they want to keep close to, i'm more than happy to accede.

after all, i think there's no greater fear than the fear of the unknown.

You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
psalms 91:5,6, 9-11

electricity & water don't mix

in the old days, which is as recent as last month, the Xrays, ultrasound & CT scans taken at the radiology dept have to be physically transported to the wards or clinics, so that the respective doctors can view them. but a lot of things can happen to these hard-copies on the way out from the xray dept. they could be lying around in the dept while waiting for the porter to pick them up, the porters themselves could take their sweet time with these films or they could be misplaced just about anywhere else.

all of which add to the delay in which a diagnosis could be made or treatment started. even if nothing life-threatening, a patient may still have to wait hours waiting for the doctors to review the films. how inconvenient!

well, guess what? the hospital finally invested in an online system where the xray films are immediately uploaded & these can be reviewed immediately at anywhere a viewing screen is installed.

i saw one of these in the wards but it was placed just next to the wash basin.

i thought it was unintentional but the same thing was done at another ward.

you'd think that with it's team of IT-savvy staff & electrical engineers, the hospital would be advised to keep the computer & wash basin apart.

perhaps somewhere along in our education system, while we're striving to train rocket scientists (or astronauts?) & genious mathematicians, someone forgot to teach the students to use common sense.

03-2266 2222

this call came thru this morning & that's the official looking number displayed on my hp.

the voice on the other end was gruff & official sounding, & was apparently a high-ranking police officer from bukit aman who could identify my name. he went on to ask if i knew 2 names he mentioned. when i said i didn't know them, he proceeded to elaborate that they lived in my area & were involved in large borrowings from banks in hong kong. he 1st spoke in english, then mandarin.

i've received many scam emails before from persons in africa who wants to use my bank account to deposit cash due to me from generous but unknown politicians. i've also had youths with neck-ties coming to my home asking me to scratch their lucky draw cards.

but this is the 1st time i've had a phone call like this, so i cut him off in mid-sentence. i figured if he was genuine & serious, he'd call back & i'd apologise for the poor connection. but he didn't.

you read the papers & everyday there are stories of deception where people deposit cash to a stranger's account to gain more cash or to cement an ambiguous relationship. they are gullible maybe because of desperation or greed.

after all, desperate situations demand desperate measures.

& nothing ventured, nothing gained.

my neighbour just bought a whole bunch of watches from a friend in a business deal. now, she's asking the wife to help peddle them for a commission.

who was it who said there's one born every minute?

a twist in the tale

you must have read this somewhere but i'm going to post anyway.

a tourist to spain made a point to watch a bull-fight in madrid. he was impressed that the matadors on that day seemed to effortless stick spears into the bulls & thus killing the animals. at the end of the spectacle, he opted to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. he was fascinated that the most popular dish looked like what he thought was meatballs. he asked the waiter what they were & was told that they were actually deep-fried bull testicles, from the animals that were killed at the bull-ring. he was initially aghast but curiosity got the better of him as the diners seemed to enjoy their meals. he made an order & he was indeed convinced it was the best meat-balls he's ever savoured.

so good was the dish that he returned the next day to the same restaurant & ordered the same. however, this time he was disappointed that the meat-balls were much smaller in size. he asked the waiter why that was so, to which the waiter replied:

sometimes, the bull wins.

i remembered this tale because of a patient who came for minor surgery today. he was involved in a road traffic accident where the car he was travelling in crashed into a tree. he was a back-seat passenger while the driver & front passenger died in the head-on collision.

and he wasn't even using the seat-belt.

he was extremely fortunate. in a collision like this, he only sustained a cut on his shoulder while his 2 friends perished.

yeah, somtimes the bull wins.

victoria

a queen of england.

a state in australia.

a railway station in london.

wife of david beckham.

a reknown lingerie brand.

and the new australian open tennis women's champion & current world #1.

so, it was coincidental that my daughter would be enrolled into victoria junior college for A-levels. according to the students, the top 3 ranking JCs are raffles, hwa chong & national. they joked that those who fail to enter hwa chong end up in national, while those that couldn't enter raffles would settle for victoria.

she quipped that she'd be considered a raffles drop-out. i reassured her that she'd be less stressed in an environment where expectations aren't sky-high & just to enjoy herself in the last 2 years of formal schooling. i know i did.

i just hope the boys won't be too much of a distraction.

at the crossroads

5th formers are spoilt for choice these days. there are so many paths they can take to pursue their career dreams.

those who can afford private education, go on to foundation courses or A-levels, either locally or overseas, based on their forecast results. foundation courses fast-track on to university within a year while A-levels exams may be taken in june of the following year, allowing entry into UK universities in september.

yet others wait for the SPM results & then apply for matriculation or 6th form. these are the government's equivalent of foundation courses & A-levels, respectively.

amidst all these, there's the annual saga of government & private scholarships & the long-drawn issue of the fair disbursement of these awards.

so many choices. how would you choose what's best for your kids? how would they choose?

This is what the LORD says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. 
Jer 6:16

killer breakfasts

this is typically what N takes for breakfast. today, it's nasi lemak. tomorrow, it may be mee goreng & the next day, a burger. but it almost always goes with a 500-ml bottle of carbonated drink. coke today, maybe sprite tomorrow.

N is a 20-something male nurse who graduated a few years back. the health lectures he listened to during his training days must have been lost on him. or maybe, he wasn't paying attention. or worse, he couldn't care less.

he is already grossly overweight but he's ok for now because he's still young & (looks) healthy. give him another 20 years on this diet & he'll be another health statistic. you know, hypertention, diabetes, stroke & coronary artery disease. he must have overlooked the fact that we've had patients in their 40s coming in for heart bypass surgery.

we've already repeatedly drummed into him, warning him of his folly but the advice has fallen on deaf ears. maybe he's stubborn & couldn't care less.

but this isn't an ideal world & we all know it. because in an ideal world, doctors don't smoke, lawyers don't cheat, accountants don't embezzle & politicians speak the truth.

what do you think an ideal world is like?

“There is no ideal world for you to wait around for. The world is always just what it is now, and it's up to you how you respond to it.” ― Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

ground zero

i've not been to JB, where i was born & bred, for over 3 years since the old man passed on. so, it was a homecoming of sorts when i met up with my remaining relatives & friends this lunar new year.

catching up gave me a glimpse of my past again - rediscovering my roots &  experiencing a sense of deja vu. it was all too familiar, this JB town - the dirty streets, the crowded food courts, the recognisable faces. & yet JB the city felt strangely foreign - flyovers appeared where there once was only roads congested with traffic, residential areas that were previously considered "ulu" are now townships in their own right.

this trip also provided the opportunity to speak my native teochew again - words, sentences & their intonation that were kept in the back-burner all these years jumped to the fore. but alas, they sounded foreign to my kids & for that, i take responsibility for not passing down the clan's legacy. i consoled myself that millions now speak mandarin instead of dialects.

i foresee that these trips to JB would be less frequent in the future. once the old guard fades away, there's no reason for their kids who now have their own families & who do not reside in JB, like me, to return to their place of birth.

JB would be like ground zero. a happy place once alive with people i know & loved, but soon to exist only in distant memories. i felt a sense of belonging & yet the detachment from the images that i know & remember so well is obvious.

i smiled knowingly, chuckled to myself at people & events past, & then move on.


**my profile picture was taken at my great-grandma's attap home in jalan ngee heng, right where danga city mall now stands**

like a lottery.

a lottery, as we all know, is a game of chance. whether you choose a series of numbers or buy numbered tickets, you win by a lucky draw. there's no intelligent thinking or effort that determines the outcome, except only by chance.

like sending your car to the workshop. if you go to a manufacturer authorised workshop, you'd expect a certain standard of service. you'd think the mechanics are well-trained, the equipment up-to-date & the spare parts genuine. but is it possible, by chance, one day you are allocated a mechanic who has some personal problems that affects his work? imagine what could go wrong after he's done with your car.

like going to the emergency department. you find out that you require urgent surgery & the surgeon, by chance, needs to attend an important dinner that very day. so, he hurriedly tries to complete the surgery in time for his dinner date. imagine you are that patient & what could possibly go wrong.

things happen, often randomly, but by the grace of God, we are mostly spared the dire consequences.

a bird in hand.

you know how the saying goes  - that it's worth 2 in the bush?

i just found a new meaning today.

Y is a 77-yr-old man with severe heart disease complicated with renal failure. his wife has left him & his 4 children are not the least bothered about him.

that's because he has a 2nd wife. she's on her own because her own family doesn't know about this marriage, if one was ever held. she has not been seen since Y was admitted 2 days ago.

that leaves Y all alone floundering in the ICU. his heart is giving way & his kidneys are packing up. he's hooked up to a ventilator & there are tubes galore sticking out of him. he won't last the day.

what a way to end the year - dying alone.

yet, isn't it a paradox when they say 3's a crowd??

it's in the genes....... isn't it?

we are all familiar with the tradition of assigning a child's physical appearance to either parent or even to a grandparent, sometimes even down to a particular feature of the face. remember kirk & michael douglas's trademark chin?

sometimes we dissect the child's character & habits as well. take my daughter for example. she takes after my looks, is introverted & often melancholic like me, & has inherited my (ahem!) brains.

but, alas, she drives like her mum.

she failed her driving test again. sigh, now i have to go home & lend her my shoulders.

oh yes, like her mum, she doesn't take failure too well.

but my son, conceived 8 years later, is altogether different. he doesn't look like either of us, has a dimple on his cheek like his grandma, has a gentle disposition like his uncle (my brother). he only takes after me in our common interest in watching & playing football & he enjoys helping out his mother in the kitchen & housework.

such is the mystery of the human character. only God knows why we are made the way we are.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
psalms 139:13-16 (NLT)

gold

the media reported a gold rush of sorts in johor baru yesterday. with gold price at a high, it's understandable why people would pan for the precious commodity.

as it turned out, it's only granite imbedded with iron sulphide, which glitters under sunlight.

i got a call from a nurse very early this morning about a patient in the ward who was restless from a head injury. i had seen him earlier yesterday & prescribed the appropriate medication. however, the nurse didn't adhere closely to the prescription, which resulted in the patient getting restless, & which got me all riled up.

at 2am.

instinctively, i gave her a mouthful, which could have been worse but for the fact that i'm a natural late-sleeper. i've ranted about incompetent nurses before here, here & here.

but some nurses are really good, although sadly, they are few & far in-between. like male nurse D. he started as a clerk & the hospital sponsored his nursing diploma. after completion, he served his bond faithfully - willing to learn, accepts criticism, is hardworking & has a nice personality. one of my colleagues Dr K took him under his wings & trained him up to be his (Dr K's) assistant in OT. D is good at what he does.

now that his bond is near completion, D has found a better paying job elsewhere. we threw him a farewell lunch today. i told Dr K: you're going to lose your right-hand man soon.

Dr K replied, rather crudely : he's only my left hand little finger.

i thought that was uncalled for. it's so hard to find decent nurses these days & doctors should appreciate when they get good ones. for that matter, hospitals should similarly try to retain their staff, especially so those that bring up their good name.

after all, many things glitter, but only real gold has intrinsic value. all the best to your new job, nurse D!

**image from the star**

ordinary

that's what the "O" stands for in O-level exams.
my daughter doesn't feel it's all that ordinary. in fact, it's giving her the jitters as the day of reckoning arrives. 

those days, we all went to the school office & queued to get the result slips. no one else would know the details if we chose not to reveal.

in my daughter's school, they will assemble in the school hall. the top students (7As & above) will be called up by name & the number of As announced. then, they will go up on stage to collect their slips.

the other less successful students will just get their results individually & with much less fanfare.

no wonder, the girl has jitters!! but i guess she will just have to get used to the pressure-cooker pace, because that's the way it is & i don't envy her one bit.

on the day i got my results, a bunch of us walked from school through the botanical gardens towards town center to catch a bus home. on the way, we monkeyed around, ate ice-cream & joked. there wasn't much pressure. none of us did exceptionally well but we all did enough to get into 6th form & that mattered the most.

ah, life was ordinarily simple then.

still an "L"

the girl went for her driving test this morning. i had hoped she would pass 1st time but she didn't.

did she knock into a pole during parking?

no.

did she slide down the slope?

no.

did she forget to put on the indicator light when changing lanes?

no.

so, how did she fail?

she ran a red light.

i'm still reeling from the shock - there's a potential speed demon in the family.

old school

i know it's odd to talk about old when it's less than 2 days into the new year, but a member of the old school has passed on.

i read the obituary of prof sengupta, head of orthopaedics when i was his student. his department has this to say about the good professor:

there's no doubt the prof loved to teach. as students, we used to dread his teaching wards rounds, only because he could spend a whole session on just 1 patient, elaborating on clinical signs, diagnosis, treatment & how such a patient may present during the exams. his morning round would often stretch through lunch & the part we dreaded the most was that he could stand throughout the whole proceeding by the patient's bedside, so we had to stand as well. he would end at about 1.30pm & we would have to grab a quick bite before afternoon classes commenced again at 2pm.

such diligence & dedication is rare nowadays.

so, dear prof sengupta, on behalf of the class of 79/84, we all salute you, together with the late profs karim, raman, dhanaraj & bosco,  as pillars of our medical education.

you've taken our hands, opened our minds & touched our hearts. you've made us into who we are today & we thank you.

may your soul rest in peace.