stringed ensemble

we had our little Christmas do last nite.

besides food & drinks & outreaching, we also discovered our little stringed ensemble.....

may they use their God-given talents in praising His name. Amen.

thank you, pa!

those were his 1st words after he got this....

......which was a promise made to him early this year if he maintained his position in class. and he did exceed our expectations.

however, this was not without condition - he will be denied access should he slack or falter next year. then, he will learn very quickly that, in the real world, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

or, in his case, an iPad.

am i the prodigal son?

years ago, i made up my mind to return to my roots & serve in a mission hospital. i did apply to join but while waiting for a vacancy, i went over to s'pore. months later, due to some miscommunication, the mission hospital hired someone else.

that's when i came back & found another vacancy at another hospital in another state.

and i've been here since.

a few months back, i met up with a pastor who said he has served at the mission hospital & know the management team well. and if i had any intention to return, he could help me. i sort of brushed it off disregarded it.

then last week, another former pastor and currently educator told me via FB that he has been sent to join the senior management team of that hospital. when i related how i almost got to work there 15 years ago, he asked if i was still interested to return to the fold because he wielded considerable influence there.

ha ha, is someone up there messing with prompting me?? sending these two people to bid me to return to my roots?

i think, just to be on the safe side, i'll just wait for a 3rd messenger ....that would really convince me to uproot & move.

until then, i'll just remain content in my kampong life.

whatsapp!

used Whatsapp for the 1st time today.

(it just means that i've just got myself an android phone la!!)

better late than never, right?

an unusual birthday gift

i received this self-made birthday card from the daughter today......

yes, she's finally finished.....but something else may be about to start.....

 

she's introduced us to a local boy.....2 years older, from the church, currently undergoing national service.......

 

should i laugh or cry??

dust to dust

 

"For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” gen 3:19

3.15pm (and the fat lady has sung.)

the last paper is done & dusted......

and although school officially is over, the learning never ends.....

but now, it's time to relax for little while........

.....and rejoice......

..........and reunite..........

..............and anticipate.......

....................where the path will next lead to..........

exams.....another love-hate relationship.

butterflies.....again!

 

i had another dose of butterflies some weeks back.....

 

this was a middle-aged man with a tumour that secretes a hormone which raises the blood pressure. never in my 28 years in medical practice have i seen anyone with a blood pressure of 307/111 (!!!) until that day.

 

 

but there's always a 1st time for everything, yes?

 

a sudden surge in BP is never good, particularly for the brain or heart & a stroke or a heart attack is a very real threat.

 

to cut a long story short, the body is a wonderful machine which can withstand  multiple insults & assaults & still come through largely intact.

 

the tumour was successfully removed after a 6-hour surgery. while the patient will probably live longer now, i fear, ironically, that my life just got cut short by at least 3 months.

butterflies.

this i remember from the 70s....

there was this sitcom about a Mexican family living in the US. the guy was terribly anxious about an upcoming event & he told his wife so.

"i'm having cocoons in my stomach!"

"err...you mean, you have butterflies?"

"no, cocoons....but they will be butterflies this afternoon!!"

lame, right?

i can understand the anxiety my daughter is going thru during the current A-level exams. some days, it even feels like i'm sitting for it!! after all, i've been doing exams after exams from primary school till varsity, & each seemed to be more important than the previous one.

& i still go thru anxiety spells at work. like today.

2-month-old kids are fun to make monkey faces at & tickle koochi-koochi, but i tell, they're no fun to give an anaesthetic to. they are so dainty.... so delicate....the margin for error is slim. one little slip &........

arrghhh....don't want to think about it...

so you can understand why, like my daughter, i've been having cocoons since early this morning.

of queens and princesses.........

 

so far, half of this statement has been true for me......

 

 

what about you?

just a phone call.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hell on earth

 

on some days, work feels like this....

advice from an anonymous doctor....

 

 

exotic restaurants

 

 

godfather

that's the guy who makes you an offer you can't refuse.

i met one today......at Popular.

the hardcover copy priced originally at rm87.90 is going for a song at rm20.00!!

isn't that one offer you too can't refuse??

(or, maybe the Big Bad Wolf can come up with a better offer?)

a little ME time

i was in the Big City over the weekend all by myself. ok, not exactly all alone because it was a medical conference & some of these meetings served more as a social event than for discovering advances in medicine.

usually the family accompanies me on trips like these because we hardly come to the Big City. this time, free of any constraint, i managed to explore a little more of the city.

one thing's for sure - it doesn't sleep on weekends. mamak shops/stalls thrive because people meet & eat round the clock. and the double & triple parking after office hours is legendary.

also, the high cost of living isn't a big issue for some people. i had dinner with an ex-classmate at a restaurant & he suggested a set dinner at rm58++ per pax. i baulked at the price but he didn't even bat an eyelid. back at the kampong where i live, people only pay price this for 8-course wedding dinners. i intentionally chewed on the meal slowly & swallowed cautiously to savour the moment!

ah yes, also managed to meet up & have coffee & cake with a FB friend.

it's so cliché but true - home is where the heart is. after 3 days, i missed the rm3 lunch, toll-free roads & ample free parking in the kampong.

ah....it's good to touch the green, green grass of home!

superstition is here to stay...

i ought to be more careful with my choice of words.....

me : ok, we've arranged for your surgery to be done asap. it's time to go now.

patient : doctor, don't say, "it's time to go."

that's when i realised my mistake. for the superstitious traditionalist, "time to go" means going to one's death & that's a no-no, even though the ghost month (when the spirits are released from hell) officially ended yesterday.

i promptly apologised & rephrased that the nurse will send her to the OT soon.

and the surgery went thru smoothly.

phew!!

just the wrong place......

it was a tragedy that the Air Asia exec was knocked down by a car driven by a Good Samaritan trying to help save her from robbers. if only she had been a little further from where she was, the robbers may have been seriously injured instaed.

same with this guy. he was eagerly awaiting the for fireworks as the countdown to Merdeka began. however, instead of shooting off skywards, the fireworks went straight towards his direction instead.
he suffered some minor burns & cuts on his face close to his right eye. his vision was fortunately not affected.

if only he had stood a few feet away in a different position, he may have avoided injury altogether.

sometimes, our own negligence causes accidents to ourselves or to others. at other times, we have no control over things that happen to us.

may God watch over & protect us always!

patients can make or destroy you.

if you have treated a patient well, he/she may tell his/her circle of friends & thereby improve your referral rate.

conversely, the patient may also speak badly about you & the reverse occurs.

this actually happened & could have been a back-fire....

patient (speaking aloud) : doctor, doctor! you remember you operated on my mother 3 years ago? she died la!

doctor : ????

(later, the said patient went on to clarify that the operation was successful but her mother eventually died of old age)

fortunately, the conversation did not take place in a crowded clinic room or else the doctor's reputation would have been tarnished, though of no fault of the doctor.

botox, anyone?

many, myself included, believed that the best milk are produced in new zealand. maybe it's true, maybe it's just persuasive advertising, but trusted names like fernleaf, anchor & danone have strong following worldwide.

suddenly, in the wake of the botulism scare, china, the largest importer of new zealand milk, has ordered a recall of the latter's milk products. in 2008, tragedy struck china's milk industry when tainted milk killed 6 infants & made many more sick.

botulinum toxin, produced by the bacteria Clostridium, poisons the nerves, causes paralysis & can be fatal. the irony is that doctors are injecting people with this toxin (even the label on the bottle said so)......

 ......though in small, controlled doses, so that the recipients may loose their wrinkles, frowns lines & crow feet.

 

medicine, like most things in life, dictates that too much of a thing can't be that good, eg. sugar, salt, cholesterol. the other classical example is vaccines. these are watered-down versions of the actual viruses, that in their original forms, causes diseases like polio, measles & tetanus.

 

so, if you're thinking of having botox, just imagine that you're getting a toxin injected into you & that's just to look good.

 

is it really worth it?

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is ............ temperance: against such there is no law. (gal 5:22, KJV)