helping someone start a car

there are a few extra stuff i keep in my car.....

1) torchlight & umbrella;

2) spare cash;

3) spare bottle of plain water (for washer reservoir) AND battery water;

4) cloth gloves (for tyre change);

5) battery starter cables &;

6) a big stick (for self-defence);

i don't have a small fire extinguisher which would be useful as well.

i was at the petrol station today when i saw someone trying to start up a car with battery cables but for some reason, it didn't work. still, i was quite impressed that someone kept those cables handy. i have used my own cables twice & it successfully got the car started both times. so, i thought i'd find out why. apparently, one of the cable wasn't placed firmly on the battery terminal. a clue would be to see sparks fly when you attach the cables.

once that clip was readjusted, the car started at the 2nd attempt.

ah....my good deed for the day!

here today, gone today...

ahh....life is so fragile...

48 year-old man who has been smoking all his life had chest pain yesterday afternoon. he walked into A&E & was wheeled into the cathetherization lab to confirm the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

even before the procedure has commenced, he became sweaty & progressively drowsy. within minutes, Code Blue was activated & after an hour of vigorous resuscitation, he has become another statistic of preventable death from heart disease....

.....leaving a trail of tears & wails from his young family.

then the finger-pointing started.....

...he had just tucked into lunch with the family....

.....he was OK when he walked into hospital......

.........what did the heart specialist do in the cath lab....?

................did he do something that killed him........?

when questions like these are thrown about, you know might not get paid this time....

ahh....just another day at the office!

another foot in the mouth....

it was quite easy enough preventing singapore-registered cars from filling with subsidised RON 95 petrol. anyone can spot such a vehicle from miles away - just ask our highway patrolmen with speed cameras.

but just how are you going to make high-income Malaysians pay the full price for fuel? making such an announcement even before the details are worked out is typical of our faux pas-strickened lawmakers.

for example, how are they going to decide the level of high income? how are the petrol station staff to decide who these people are? what happens if the drivers of the BMWs & Mercs are really the lowly-paid drivers? what if i asked the wife to fill up for me? will there be separate pumps for unsubsidised fuel?

i can imagine the distress the petrol station owners are going thru. installing whatever system to discriminate the car owners is going to cost money & these won't be cheap because some crony will be getting this contract &, if true to form, this will eventually die a natural death ala AES.

however, if this bird-brained idea actually worked out well, i should stick my own foot into my big mouth.

another one bites the dust

anyone remember ericsson?

of course not, because no one remembers losers!

sony bought over the ailing swedish cellphone manufacturer some years back & that's that. now that microsoft has bought over nokia, the latter's name would soon suffer a similar demise. (read here)

but we malaysians have no fear of that happening here. with solid unfaltering government support, our distressed car-maker proton has more lives than a cat.

it almost became volksproton, though!

hidup proton!!

if your elderly parent is in hospital....

very often we have elderly patients coming for surgery & because they usually are afflicted with various medical problems, they take a myriad of medications for their ailments. sometimes they forget to bring these with them when they are admitted & their spouse/children cannot remember what these medications are.

so, i was pleasantly surprised when i saw this note attached to a patient's file.

not as detailed as i would have liked, eg. dose & frequency not stated, but it's good enough, esp when there are times i haven't the foggiest idea what some patients are suffering from & what medications they take.

and that would be like sailing into the high seas without a compass....

the fat lady has sung......finally!

it must be the longest school exam saga in history.

the final paper, mathematics, is held this morning & at 9.15am, the students will finally be freed from their angst, no thanks to the bumbling people at the ministry.

it was exactly one month ago to the day when the UPSR exam began. what was meant to be a straightforward 3-day exam has degraded into a 30-day fiasco.

even before the dust has settled, the same fellas there decided to thread on thin ice & proclaim that forecast results would not be allowed as entry requirements for pre-U courses, undoing a practice that had been in place for decades, only to do a U-turn after a public uproar.

this, and the debacle concerning language for teaching maths & science, & local universities not participating in the ranking exercise, has just strengthened the view that the name of the ministry should be changed.

to the ministry of un-education.

careless or forgetful?

i went to pump petrol this morning. imagine my horror when i realised my credit card is not in its usual slot in my wallet.

i retraced my recent movements. the last time i used the card was yesterday evening at jusco. i remembered i had hurriedly kept the receipts & card into the wallet & may have dropped it in my haste to pay at the parking payment machine.

so it's gone now. alarms flashed in my mind. did someone pick it up? how much credit did that person rack up at my expense? full tank of petrol? new LED tv? business class air tickets?

arrgh.......!!

when i got home, i quickly ran thru my clothes & other personal effects & the shopping bag but it wasn't there. i called the card centre immediately to cancel the card. to my relief, no one had bought a tv or air tickets.

credit cards, like internet banking, can be a double-edged sword. use it wisely & it's a great modern convenience. foul it up & you get nightmares.

this is not the 1st time i had lost a credit card but i have been fortunate not to suffer any loss other than a few desperate moments.

i need to be more careful. we all do.

exam leak...again!

i think it's more common than we are told about exam paper leaks. most probably occur at school level & are overlooked or deemed insignificant to be reported.

but when it is headline news on TV or print media, you know the leak is serious & extensive. it's unfortunate that my son is affected in this year's UPSR exams.

if this can happen at a primary school exit exam, is it not unreasonable that this security breach could also be happening at secondary school or even university exams?

i remembered it happened at the MCE (predecessor of today's SPM) BM paper in the mid-70s. the leak was discovered AFTER the students have sat for the paper & the replacement paper was arranged to be held after the last paper of that exam. i can imagine the frustration of the students at that time because a similar incident happened to me years later.

when i was sitting for 1st year exams in varsity, one of the lab exams was leaked & that paper had to be retaken the following day. i didn't sit for that paper but that's another story for another day.

coming back to this UPSR fiasco, it was honourable of the 2nd education minister to apologise to students & parents but no amount of apologies is going to alleviate their angst.....

except when they catch the culprit(s) & prosecute with a deterrent sentence......

and in a different country, the education minister would have tendered his resignation.

UPSR

it's that time of the year again.....

the exam season is upon us & along with it, comes its baggage of burning of midnite oil & of candles at both ends, sleep deprivation, last minute revision & extra tuition classes, amongst other labour-intensive tasks.

and the age-old tradition rears its ugly head....that the parents sit thru the exams as much as the students.

diving into shallow waters

just be careful when diving. or driving.

ok, just be careful in everything that you do.

this is the horrendous injury sustained when someone tried to dive into shallow waters.

 

this MRI scan shows a badly-fractured neck with extensive damage to the spinal cord. he can barely lift up his arms & cannot move or feel his legs at all. he required surgery to stabilise the neck (to prevent further damage) & the chances of recovery are slim.

 

what started out as a fun day at the beach has turned into a nightmare for this chap. let's learn from this & prioritise safety above all else.

confession of a nurse

and no, it's not what you think it is....

nurse : doc, you know you have changed....

me: how so?

nurse : you used to be so fierce....

me : really?

nurse : yes, so fierce that i refused to join your department!

me : so, now how?

nurse : now you not fierce anymore. maybe you are getting old.

ha ha, how true! the older we get, we should mellow down & not hold on too steadfastly to the high ideals we have set for ourselves during younger days. some things don't change much, eg. work ethics, & sometimes the more you try to change (for the better), the more it feels like hitting a brick wall.

and, boy, have i had some terrible headaches from the impact.

so let's just let sleeping dogs lie.......and i may just live longer!

farewell

Gave a farewell dinner last week to one of the nurses who has left the department.

it's the usual occasion for best wishes to be exchanged, promises to keep in touch to be made and group photos taken.

so, i was most surprised when my colleagues & i each received a gift from the nurse concerned....

 

maybe we said, taught or did something or encouraged her in ways we didn't even realise. i remembered her from her student nursing days & have seen her pass thru the rite of passage from a blurry-eyed student to a confident staff nurse. even attended her wedding.

 

she will be missed much.

reminds me about the way our country is managed. there must be ongoing brain drain in every industry & the biggest beneficiary is the Little Red Dot down south.

 

but i digress.

fully booked

i expect cinema halls, concert shows, plane flights & hotels to be fully booked.

but also restaurants at the mall?

don't take me the wrong way but i'm glad that the fasting month has finally come to an end, & i doubt i am the only one who feels this way.

think : providers of emergency/critical services.

philipian

apparently, last week i had a patient from 1st century Greece.

 

Philippi was an ancient Macedonian city (of Alexander the Great fame, remember?) & one where the apostle Paul had helped set up church.

 

 

however, i wouldn't have gotten all excited if our education system had taught our "lost generations" proper geography - that the inhabitants of the Philippines are called Filipinos.

 

i just shook my head & shared a good laugh with some friends.

act of God

apparently i slept thru a thunderstorm (what?) last nite.

because this is what i saw going to work this morning....

a tree in the visitors' car park has toppled over.....

......causing a dent on the roof.

so, who should pay for the damage?

the hospital because it collects parking fees?

car insurance comprehensive insurance?

the hospital has made its stand that cars are parked at owners' own risk & car insurance policies generally do not cover  "acts of God."

guess the car was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

just like MH17?

deep sh*t

staff turn-over is a common event in many companies - people move for various reasons & these may be "pull" or "push" factors.

even in hospitals.

but when staff in their peak years move on to greener partures & the heads of department replace them by re-hiring retired staff with a poor previous working record, it doesn't speak well of employment process.

quantity instead of quality?

filling up the numbers?

or fixing sink holes with duct tape?

yup, we are in deep sh*t!!

age of decadence?

i am a regular guy.

i buy regular stuff (read: mostly when on offer) & i drive regular cars (read: B-class Japanese).

which is why i cannot fathom why people in not-yet-1st-world malaysia would pay this much for a meal....yes, just ONE meal!

not exactly exquisite continental cuisine but just a buffet dinner at a local hotel....so i imagine there must a quite a number of irregular guys out there!

30

i am 30 today......as a doctor.

on this day in 1984, i reported for duty as houseman in the paediatrics department. although medicine wasn't my 1st choice of career for most of school life, i had a change of heart when applying for varsity courses. although i initially struggled thru the initial stages of the course, it did take some time before i got used to it.

the rest is history & today, my classmates & i, of the class of 79/84, we celebrate our own special milestone.

 

*those days, i had a lot more hair & a lot less waist*

saman 2.0

the earlier court hearing was postponed because the court room had to make way for an "emergency hearing."

so my turn for the re-scheduled hearing will be held this afternoon. of course, it disrupts my schedule, in addition to causing some degree of anxiety & distress.

which makes me realise that each one of us will affect someone else's life, in the decisions we make everyday, whether good or bad. i have to attend this court hearing because of someone's lack of rational thinking, lapse in judgement or selfish ambition.

oh well....have to go now....off to the lions' den....

saman

that's a scary word. it means "summons," & we're all to familiar with it, be it from the police,  road transport or internal revenue. usually it implies that some form of payment is outstanding & due.

it's also used when we receive wedding invitations. this may be from a friendly party but the outcome is nevertheless identical - a payment is in order.

i just received one last week.....

this is to attend court as a prosecution witness. someone from the hospital had used my name to pilfer stuff. so, in addition to getting the guilty party charged for wrongdoing, it's also to clear my name.

i just hope to defence counsel don't tear me to pieces 1st!!