I bought a sewing machine!

Learning to sew in the sewing machine centre. Searched thru whole ipoh and found this nice 3 unit Brother sewing machine shop. Luckier still, there's a 2nd hand Brother VX1250 available! Traded in by someone who's just moved house. Mum bargained til the price dropped fr rm400 to 300. haha.. so happy.

The hole-filled camera pouch.

My Brother VX 1250!

My first attempt at making a camera pouch.
I dissected the hole-filled one and learned the ways.
It's non-functional but I'll watch lots of videos to improve. hehehe...

《WooHoo 大日子！》❀

 《WooHoo 大日子！》真是不可多得的好制作。 原本要和爸妈到戏院去观赏， 可惜我考完试戏已下画，买翻版的念头萌生， 可又想到本地华人这么不容易制作了一部电影片， 我是应该支持的。❀

我欢天喜地到Speedy 买， 售价19.90。 心想，“真便宜！” 岂知， 到楼上一看，店主把贴纸往原价一黏， 售价17.90。我只好自叹没货比三家才买。❀

观赏完《大日子》后， 深感每一分都花得很值得。 真是一部好戏。 跟爸妈看很温馨，整间屋子笑声连连。让我想起以前看新加波《小孩不笨2》是的欢乐时光。

❀  waaaa, i cannot tahan already. This pinyin is making me crazy and type ❀ like a tortoise. Typing in chinese is another skill i have yet to master. It doesn't help that my pinyin is the weakest part of my chinese knowledge. Out of 10 pinyin questions in SPM, I'd get 9 wrong. Luckily there was only one pinyin question in the grammar section. hahaha...❀

Anyway, watching "WooHoo" has made me realize that we're not short on local talents and the least we can do is to buy original DVDs or go to the cinemas to support them ❀

❀
    ❀   p.s. thx su yan for recommending this movie to me!

Cleansing oil

Have read for the umpteenth time that sunblock must be removed with a proper make up remover, so after comparing prices between Etude House Cleansing water/oil/cream(rm46.50, 150ml) and Elianto(RM29, 200ml) and some brand unheard of in Watson, I bought Elianto's green tea cleansing oil and so far ( after 1 use) find it very nice! I love the feeling of the oil 'melting' the residual sunblock. let's hope it wouldn't cause any (additional)breakouts.

Got a free, tiny sample of Clinique derma white brightening city block with SPF 40/PA +++. huhu...it's only 7ml so i think it's enough for only one application. But good enough already. Will compare it to Shiseido's sunblock. Although it's very pricey ( rm105 for 100ml), i still consider it a good investment cuz it suits my skin and wouldn't bleach it upon application. It brightens my skin tone instead so why not spend the money and make myself happy while i'm still young?

鄭丁賢: 瑪麗娜，妳不是……

image taken from: api.ning.com/files/O-iKfvl4*QgY3...girl.jpg

她的名字是瑪麗娜恩道（Marina Undau），她住在砂拉越內陸的斯里阿曼，她的父親是伊班人。

17歲的瑪麗娜，從來沒有對自己的身份感到懷疑：她是伊班人，大家認為的砂拉越土著。

她考取大馬教育文憑（SPM），獲得9個A和1個B。以全國水平衡量，或許不算頂尖，但是，在教育資源短缺的東馬內陸地區，這是了不起的成績，是家族的榮耀。

在大馬的扶弱政策之下，瑪麗娜應該獲得特別的照顧，她應該比西馬資源和條件優厚的土著，更有資格被送到國外深造。

然而，她沒有這個機會。

她是個謙虛的女孩，她唯一的心願，就是能夠進入本地的大學預科班（Matrikulasi），以便一年後可以升上大學。

這是一個很謙卑的心願，以土著學生考得如此成績，要進入大學預科班，簡直是輕而易舉。

然而，她的申請被拒絕了。

理由：她不是土著。

教育部審核她的背景時，發覺她的母親是華人，因而認為她不具土著資格，把她排除在大學預科班之外。

她的父親幾次上訴，都被駁回；說你不是就不是，我們是按照規矩來做事。

瑪麗娜傷心莫名。只因她是一個混血的伊班人，血統不夠純正，所以，她不能進入大學預科班。

她不瞭解馬來西亞的種族政策，她不清楚西馬的官僚作風，她不明白她是種族主義底下的另一個犧牲者。

有誰能夠告訴她，以扶弱為名的土著政策，為甚麼不能照顧一個生活在惡劣環境之下，卻積極努力，想要改變命運的伊班／華裔子民。

難道她不是真正需要照顧，而且值得照顧的弱勢群體嗎？

如果一種扶弱政策，不能真正的去幫助需要照顧，值得照顧的人民，那麼，這種扶弱政策，還有甚麼存在的意義！

或許，當這個事件被帶到政治高層時，會有網開一面的機會；對於政治人物而言，施予小惠並不困難，而且還能得到寬宏大量的美譽。很多的爭議，不都是這麼“解決”的嗎？

但是，問題在於這個封閉和腐朽的制度。它繼續浪費國家社會的資源，它繼續扼殺年輕聰慧的人才，它繼續消耗公平和正義的價值。

它也繼續在分裂這個國家。

星洲日報／馬荷加尼‧作者：鄭丁賢‧2009.11.04

摘自http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/12187

续无良人士

无良人士

Padi and Jagung

A series of recent encounters have got me thinking of what professionalism is. To me, professionalism is not just about applying knowledge in our job but also about being passionate. It is also important to use the knowledge that we’ve gained to help people. Within a year as a medical student, I’ve encountered people who were passionate professionals and also people who were to me, excuses giving and money minded.

Encounter 1: Orthopaedic Arthro team

As I’ve had this pain and ‘click’ feel on hip extension occasionally for the past few years, I’ve decided to seek medical advice during my ortho posting. This Indian registrar that I approached did not hesitate to fill in a form so that I could have a pelvic and hip xray taken. After that, to be safe, he referred me to the specialist, who VERY patiently listened to my complaint and examined my hip, while teaching his registrar the technique to detect a ‘quadriceps tendon inflammation’. He then wrote a referral letter to the physiotherapy dept so that I could have an ultrasound anti inflammatory therapy, which I defaulted due to sheer laziness. But the point is, these doctors didn’t have to do all these but due to their professionalism, they willingly did them.

Encounter 2: Loratadine

Other than ‘quadriceps tendon inflammation’, I’ve also been suffering from allergic rhinitis since young. So I had this handsome doctor examine my turbinates which he said were hypertrophied but still pink. So he prescribed me some loratadine. It was 2pm and the doctor’s last day in the hospital (I think) but he patiently explained to and examined me and rouyun while smiling!  Then after my med finished, I went back to have my prescription renewed and saw my supervisor. She welcomed me and asked what she could help upon seeing me. I was happy and grateful until the kerani kewangan ( ?financial clerk) refused to do a process to  entitle me to free med because my letter to certify that I’m a student was outdated. (But I was wearing a white coat and a name tag and I told her my supervisor wanted to prescribe me the med!) Luckily, this doctor in my supervisor’s clinic called the clerk and asked her to do it. But she didn’t do as the doctor said and I was turned down at the pharmacy. To cut the long story short, I eventually got the med but not through the aforementioned clerk but a clerk from another dept. This is an example of red tape and rigidity of the jagungs( explained below).  A few hours later, my supervisor was so nice to ask a friend to call me to ensure that I’d gotten my med.

Encounter 3: Eyes

A series of events led me to the misfortune of buying a pair of (seriously)overpriced and substandard no standard specs from S.S. optical. My power was over estimated and my eyes get tired and vision blurs easily as a result. I’m hypermetropic when I wear the specs. When confronted, the shopkeeper( Im not even sure if she was a registered optometrist)said it was ‘all in my head’. What a lame excuse to cover up her mistake. I had to have my power checked by another optometrist, so I approached the one in my hospital, for 5 times. I’ve had a patient complain that a staff was breastfeeding while working and I suspect it was this optometrist as she was carrying a small kid. She was incredibly unfriendly and was chatting with the other pembantu kesihatans the 1^st few times I approached her. She said to ‘make an appointment’ as she was ‘very busy’. But i’d time constraint and frankly, did not see the point of making one when she was so obviously free during all of the times I approached her. The last time I approached her, she was choosing make up brought to the clinic by a PK to sell. I had no choice but to approach a doctor. The doctor was very busy on the phone talking to one of his patients who did not turn up for his/her appointment. He agreed immediately to check my eyes as I had floaters for a few years. He dilated my eyes and checked for retinal detachment with slit lamp, some prism which can visualize my retina til ora serrata, B scan and another tool which I forgot the name. I had virteous degeneration by the way. The point is, the whole 40 minutes from when the mydriatics were applied, the waiting time for my eyes to dilate, the examining time, the ‘busy’ optometrist was looking at the make ups and chatting with the PKs. This is what I call the more ‘berisi’ a padi is, the lower it bends and the more tak berisi the jagung is, the straighter it stands. Something like that lah. Meaning the more knowledgable a person is, the humbler he is.

Lessons of the day:

1. I am grateful for all the wonderful doctors, my regular optometrist in ipoh who helped verify my power, the overprice-ness of the new glasses and the sub-standard of it, and the clerk who helped do the ‘fee exemption process’ for me.

2. With a single incident of faulty specs being so distressing where it necessitates so many trips to the substandard optical shop, my regular shop and the hospital optometrist, it makes me realize the responsibility I will bear in the future. If a relatively small matter like this can be so distressing, imagine what - a disease misdiagnosed, a treatment wrongly given, a preventable death not prevented because of human error- can cause! Therefore, I must be extra diligent and careful when I practise next time.

3. The same old thing, “the more the padi is berisi, the more it bends’. This is so true. That’s why people talk about the Little Napoleons syndrome. As a future junior doctor, I hope that I will not become one.   

Sketches of Vietnam

Vietnam

Sketches!

As seen from Poco Homemade Cafe

Ayer Jerneh- accompanied mum to the lil town where she attended primary school.

Palete Palette - other than the Tandoori chicken, nothing else was delicious.

Exams exams exams

What i had during the study week. Very unhealthy but what to do?

Poco Handmade Cafe

Poco Homemade!!!! 

Little pleasures in life can be very exhilarating. Today Kuan yew and I went to this cute lil shop in Jalan Choo Cheng Khay named Poco Homemade. We arrived there a teeny bit earlier than the cook cum waitress and had fun taking some siao photos. I love the ambience on the street. It's very un-KL-like, and thinking that it's situated right off Jalan Maharajalela! Actually i never'd have gone to this shop alone. I suggested to Kuan Yew half expecting him to dismiss my idea but he promised to teman me there!

Posing with this  cool 100% handmade sketch and art book by around 10 malaysians. The food was nice. I ordered Fish and Japanese curry set. It was delicious and tasted exactly like the chicken cooked with Japanese curry Kuan Yew made! It's not spicy but it retains its curry flavour. Made for people who love curry but can't take very spicy food, like meee.

My main aim of going to Poco was to see the craft this incredibly talented girl nicknamed meer's crafts. I was not disappointed. I've been fantasizing about owning a sewing machine that does quilts. But the girl in the shop told me that one'd cost rm700. sigh... maybe i'll buy the simplest one rm100 first then decide whether i'm truly interested(read: talented) in sewing. I remember sewing classes as one of the most boring during secondary school. How time changes a person's perspective.

Mana boleh  forget to take couple pic? So we asked the cook cum waitress to take for us. At first i was apprehensive than she'll find using Kuan Yew's DSLR difficult but she held it in a professional way and snap! snap! snap! 3 beautifully taken, at just the right angle were born!