In need of somone good with electricity

Despite promising photos of Brisbane/the Gold Coast from my trip over new year's to Australia, my computer decided it would prefer not to turn on and give itself a holiday too. So until I can get the thing to someone who can play around with the inside wires, I'm stuck using a crappy chuggy computer that i don't dare load anything onto.

However, in the mean time i've started my trainee intern year, the sixth year of medical school where we're let loose on patients and my first rotation happens to be Obs and Gynae. Just came off of a 'long day' meaning 8am-10pm, and the same again tomorrow - at least babies are cute, even if they're always covered in white gunk and make me worry about giving birth in the future! I got to see a few tearful fathers cutting the cord today while mothers look on, absolutely exhausted. This one woman had been in labour for so many hours, the first bite of a subway footlong after delivery brought tears to her eyes.. :)

So all is good, but exhausting - is it bad to pine for holidays again in January?

signing off,

S

And a Merry Christmas it was...

I swear my stomach stretched a size bigger today, so it could accommodate all that food I ate. Being Asian, it wasn't a particularly 'Christmassy' meal, lots of spicy hot pot, honey soy chicken etc.. but my God it was good :)

It's funny, we're not american, but I sometimes wish we had Thanksgiving here, because tonight felt like a night of giving thanks for me. Apart from spending some wonderful time with my family, I'm also just so grateful for all the others things that have been in my life. Favourite moment: after everyone left, sitting under the tree in the dark with the twinkling tree lights, singing to celebrate the birth of a saviour. It hasn't been easy, this past year. But I think it's definitely ending on a high note :)

Enough maudlin. Now that Christmas is officially over - on to the New Year's resolutions!

I resolve to:

1. Be grateful for what I have and see God in all aspects of life
2. Maintain all my relationships - family, friends and acquaintances; make time for people above all else!
3. See this coming year as the opportunity it is: polishing up my skills before being unleashed as a full fledged doctor :) that means reading up on textbooks/journals/damn renal and neurology stuff that i just can't get my head around.
4. Not slack off too often on the 'job' - they're paying us now, there's some obligation to put in the hours. Stop being afraid of patients and other doctors alike :p
5. Waste less time - spend my spare time constructively, i.e. not just reading blogs about making stuff, but actually doing it!
6. Save up money - aim to have that certain amount by the end of the year, as secretly plotted out in my head :)
7. Eat healthy, exercise and have a trimmer figure - I don't care what I weigh, but I want my old jeans to fit again! Maybe take up running or swimming.. train for a half marathon? hmm. might be entering the realm of the impossible there.

Now for some more 'fun' but less likely to be stuck to resolutions...

- Take at least 1000 photos on my elective overseas to Toronto/the States :) and in that vein, purchase all the things I can't get here in the bottom corner of the world!
- Make those bracelets and bags and cards for people
- See if I can actually get through the entire Bible this year :p
- Hone the art of Thai cooking (apparently they sell kaffir lime leaves in the local supermarkets.. it just sounds too overwhelming to even look for)
- ooh, straighten my hair! (maybe even colour it, for the first time ever? but C will kill me for ditching her as the last Asian girl not to get highlights...)
- Not stay up till all hours of the morning (good luck on that one, oh look it's 1:21am)
- Sell a million things online so I can have the funds for more extraordinary things...
- Save a life! not that I'm wishing for cardiac arrests or even sure that I could act in the face of an emergency, but it's always a nice fantasy to have.

I think the fun of making lists is getting to me - it's really time for bed now, it's officially Boxing day! I'm off to Brisbane tomorrow, staying right across Seaworld, I'm anticipating some amazing views in Surfer's Paradise, and all those night markets along the beach! Will take photos and post up on here, although at the moment I'm 99.9% certain I have a readership of one :). My lovely fellow blog-enthusiast, how does one check to see if anyone else is visiting this blog?

xox,

S :)

A First

It's 12:59am, December 23rd, 2007.

I don't have any particular reason for starting a blog, but it should be a nice and semi-permanent place to store some thoughts and memories.

Mainly today I wanted to jot down the fact that 12 months ago:

• I had never seen a baby being born - or seen a tiny heart beating on an ultrasound
  
• The thought of 5th year medical school exams ('the finals') scared the bejesus out of me
• I didn't own a sewing machine
  
• I'd never intentionally read anyone's blog
• My hospital name badge was black and white and matched all my shirts
• I'd never been burgled
• The idea of taking a 'gap year' seemed like an impossibility
• I hadn't sold half my wardrobe to replace it with new items
• My taste in books didn't include anything by Audrey Niffeneiger (sp)
  

Not that I'm entertaining taking a gap year anytime soon, but you have to understand that that sort of mind shift for me is beyond my comprehension. And also 'The Time Traveller's Wife' has been read about 6 times since i bought it four months ago.

Thankfully, a lot of things haven't changed. I'm still a procrastinating, stubborn, emotional medical student, although the pressure of exams has been replaced by the pressure to be a decent doctor. I am still Christian and proud of it, still living at home, still obsessed with to-die-for fabrics and craft ideas, all things fashion and hello kitty (hope the latter two don't contradict each other).

Just some reflections before the new year - after this will come the new year's resolutions :)