"C" is for Cookie that's good enough for me,
"C" is for cookie that's good enough for me,
"C" is for cookie that's good enough for me,
Oh! cookie, cookie, cookie starts with "C"!
Starring Mie & Sani.
Pics uploaded by Mie years ago (I think it was in our e-group but I’m not sure).
When we first saw the name of the new album, ‘Posing Maut’, we thought he meant posing sakan and not posing mati.
(This post is dedicated to my ex-housemates especially to Al who said that she misses life in Dublin)
It was my home for 1.5 years.
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I miss my cosy room which looked like this 80% of the time…
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But neat during other times… When I was expecting guests or when I couldn’t tolerate the mess anymore.
Remember how we usually start gossip sessions in the middle of the night and I turned my room into some kind of ‘bed & breakfast’ place for my friends if these sessions extended into the wee hours of the morning?
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When I got bored, I baked. It didn’t matter if it was already 2am.
I also baked muffins for breakfast… Remember these extremely rich chocolate muffins? Made us ‘high’ and we started dancing and doing martial arts in Iveagh Garden? And some mat saleh started filming our antics? Remember how I went ‘flying’ when I attempted a very high flying kick? I landed on my back and banged my head on the ground. Then you started to worry because I didn’t respond to your calls. It did hurt but it was all fine. I was having a great time.
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I miss my kitchen above everything else. Too bad I don’t have a picture of it in its messy glory.
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And my collection of plastic containers which I intended to send for recycling.
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Which I neatly arranged just before my family’s arrival in Dublin.
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And the view from my kitchen window…
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Our unkempt yet delightful backyard…
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Where busy bees could always be spotted among the thriving dandelions during summer…
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And the apple trees (yes, we had TWO) were in blossom…
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While fungi flourished on a rotting tree…
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I miss having a constant supply of apples (many with big, fat worms inside) to make apple pies during the summer holiday. Remember how I suddenly ran out of my room, screaming because I saw a worm (it was HUGE!!!) inside an apple for the first time? How I then forced someone else to cut the apples for me? Remember the time when I spent hours in front of the TV, rolling out dough to make puff pastry for an apple strudel?
I miss picking blackberries in our backyard to make blackberry muffins. I still remember how at first we weren’t sure what the berries were… I wanted to try them but you stopped me in fear of poisoning. But me being me… I ate them anyway.
I miss having meals on my kitchen window ledge. I miss sitting there doing nothing.
I miss living there.
It’s alright Al. You can cry now.
After going out for lunch with a few friends today I realised that I’ve become a bitter person… Much worse than usual. Perhaps it’s the exam stress… perhaps it’s part of the ageing process. I’m fast becoming a cranky old lady. Yes, I’m old. I wouldn’t bother denying that though I won’t stop bragging that I’m months younger than my other friends. 
Just now, I went through of the old pictures that my dad managed to salvage from my old 3rd hand laptop which went kaput before I even had the chance to make backups of the precious files. A lot of pictures were ruined, many of which were my favourites. 
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We travelled like backpackers despite our fancy luggages. And we slept wherever we could.
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Aishah’s 1st Japanese meal (she decided she didn’t like sushi and attacked the soba). It was an all-you-can-eat buffet at a sushi restaurant in Ulm, Germany. Me and Astar (now married to Kak Ewa) had an eating competition which ended in a draw. We both had 48 plates each. 
Notice the plastic plate covers on the left of the pic? They’re all mine and that was only halfway through our eating session. It was so funny when we started fighting for certain dishes on the kaiten. Managed to give a German family (parents and two children) sitting across the kaiten a good laugh. 
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No kidding. That IS a real place in Germany. I think I took this pic on the train to Frankfurt.
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The above pictures were taken at the Glacier Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland.
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Maybe I should start writing on my previous travels instead of speaking ill of other people.
Perhaps I would… soon…
Recently the retiring current PMCSA committee representative announced the details of the next PMCSA AGM. Suddenly this half dead association’s AGM became the hot topic around college.
It started with this: (I’ll highlight the points that I find ridiculous)
Hello everyone,
i’m from class 2010.
i’m quite interested about knowing and helping pmcsa.
but then,
Waah so early aa the election, even though the ball hasn’t started and finished yet.
I’m not really sure about the system here.Some question and suggestions:
- I wonder why the posts are only open to Class 2010 and not for all? Kesian yang lain-lain. I don’t think we should limit it to class of 2010 only. better to have mixed and based on experience, interest and ability
- I am suggesting that the election is to be done by ONLINE VOTING, so that everyone has the chance to vote because not everyone from Foundation year, Class of 2008, 2009 and 2010 can come on the 5th May for the election. If it is the same like last year’s election, where only Class of 2009 voted, then this will be sad and not so fair.
-by online voting also, the candidates can send their manifesto few days before election to all students and we can see their points first before we elect them.
- Probably a longer period of campaign ? maybe the candidates need time to explain their plan and manifesto
- i had involved with few students, NGO and even political societies in Ireland.
my q is- Will there be a presentation of PMCSA’s yearly report and financial report during the election?
since in a proper AGM and election in any societies or associations that i joined, there will be a presentation of annual report and financial report.
Then his classmate replied:
Assalamualaikum and hello to all,
I truly agree with *****’s suggestions about the pmcsa election. since pmcsa is the student union and a very important body in pmc (not just a society) i think we need to conduct the election in a more professional way.Based on a few experience before, online voting is a good way to conduct it so that every student can vote (some students might be away during that time) . is every student in pmc automatically a pmcsa member? if so, everyone has a right.
the secretary reports for all the activities conducted by pmcsa and financial report must be presented for evaluation of efficacy of the committee and ensure transparency. after all, we need to develop our leadership and administration skills + critical thinking for student to criticize and give suggestions based on the performance.
are the candidates running on individual-based or team/party-based?
we all would like to see our pmcsa develop into a better student representative of pmc.
Followed by this:
Hi to PMCSA committees and friends,Hope everyone have a nice weekend,
a) I strongly recommend that we should open the posts to all classes as this can ensure a blend of ideas from new & old peoples in PMCSA. Come on, student body is for all students. Involvement from all students in a student body is better perhaps the best.
b) Since most of PMCSA students are spreading outside PMC, the only way to keep in touch is ‘firstclass’. Hence, the best way of voting system is online voting. All students have the right to vote. As their votes account their rights and commitment. A proper election system is needed.Change does not change tradition, it strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity, not a threat. -Prince Phillips.
Yesterday is a canceled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, today is the only cash you have —so spend it wisely!
Just my 2 cents. Thanks
IMHO…
Should we include all batches in the committee?
The answer is yes, of course. But not through the AGM because no one from other classes are going to turn up anyway and these candidates (if any) are supposed to represent their batches. And they’re going to be voted by strangers.
Somehow, my first impression after reading the emails was that… They want to share the burden with us so that they can go on being kiasu. Yeah, let the other classes run the student body so that they can go to the wards in the evening and during the weekends without anyone bothering them with anything. After reading the mails several times, I still see it that way.
Even if it is positively motivated, no one from other classes would join the AGM anyway. (Wanna bet?) Why make it a big issue? Just ask every class to send reps to PMCSA to be absorbed into the committee instead of the big hoo-ha to include EVERYONE in it. I bet it would be difficult even to find ONE person who would volunteer to take up this role (so can easily kiss goodbye to internal elections).
I wonder why the posts are only open to Class 2010 and not for all? Kesian yang lain-lain. I don’t think we should limit it to class of 2010 only. better to have mixed and based on experience, interest and ability
Kesian yang lain-lain??? My foot! These batches are more than happy to let you hold ALL the posts in PMCSA.
Manifes-WHAT?
This disgusts me beyond imagination.
I had run for a post in PRIME College Student Union back in 2001. Everyone else had campaigned their manifestos and what not except me and MY. We were both stuck in the election because the so called the need to include all classes and batches in the exco and therefore we decided not to campaign much. Enough to let people know that we were there as candidates. In fact, most of MY’s posters said, “Don’t vote for MY. He’s useless.” Surprisingly he ended up as the secretary and I was the treasurer (it was the other way round at first but we traded posts ). Probably because people are sick of the empty talks? I don’t know. The others who won the election (who had announced plans and explained manifestos) sure had a lot of ideas and they can really talk. But when it comes to work… it was ME and MY who actually did things. Who made things happen.
In INTEC… The campaigning period was very happening… with debates and all that. Guess what happened AFTER the election? Nothing. As if the student body had been dissolved right after the election.
During our 3rd year… when we were about to take over PMCSA… it was a very simple election. Nominations were made on the spot and voting was done immediately. I mean, immediately after the nominees had said a few words… made a few promises. I urged my friends not to vote for me and therefore I didn’t win. At least I didn’t give anyone false promises. The rest of the committee pledged their service to represent us… and look after our needs… but what happened?
Anyway… in my opinion, PMCSA didn’t do much (it still doesn’t do much). Except plan parties and games. I know *** had to personally do things to improve things between the students and the management. I myself brought the issue of the terrible canteen to PMCSA committee members, hoping that they would do something. They told me that they’ve brought the issue to PMC admin and will continue looking into the matter. Weeks passed without any words. Then I had a chance to have a long chat with the student affairs officer. He was really surprised when I complained about the canteen. He said no one had told him before. I ended up writing a letter to formally complain about it and a few weeks later, we received the good news. 
I truly agree with *****’s suggestions about the pmcsa election. since pmcsa is the student union and a very important body in pmc (not just a society) i think we need to conduct the election in a more professional way.
Correction. PMCSA is NOT a student union. It’s an association run by students (who keeps running away from important issues). THAT’S IT. But it’s also not just any society. It’s the most useless society in PMC. PMCSA sounds like it’s important in PMC but most of the time it’s irrelevant.
Probably a longer period of campaign ? maybe the candidates need time to explain their plan and manifesto
Longer campaigning period? People will just get sick of your sweet talks.
My point is… these people who had run PMCSA before were the ones who talked well during the election. And they didn’t do much. In my opinion, people who can talk (generally) will only talk. They might be able to do work but they won’t. Because they can talk and therefore they’ll just continue talking.
PMCSA is NOT a political party
As the name suggests, it’s a student representative body. I hate party-based elections in colleges. And I hate it when people turn student bodies into something political.The way I see it, when there’s a party-based election, the candidates are mostly pseudo-politicians politicians wannabes. Did you notice that in the first mail, that person openly admitted that he was involved in political societies in Ireland? Even his blog is a political one.
i had involved with few students, NGO and even political societies in Ireland.
I rest my case.
Firstclass/ online voting
Now this is hilarious. Firstclass is the BEST only way to keep in touch? Are you kidding me? I’ve had a number of times overheard your own classmates telling each other, “Firstclass is crap. No one goes there so don’t bother.”
As for online voting… only a small percentage would vote. Most would in fact not even realise that an election/ voting is taking place until after the deadline. This happens all the time. I remember one voting in particular… the response was so poor that they had to ask the group leaders to personally get the votes from their group members.
Even though it’s impractical, forcing students to go to the lecture theatre to vote would give you a much much much better turnout.
Point is… people don’t care about PMCSA.
LAN classes is only twice a week.There’s still 3 more free weekday evenings. What about Saturday? If people want to go, they WILL go. Problem is… they DON’T want to go. So even if you start an online voting, these people (majority of any class) who don’t care, won’t vote anyway. So the issue now… is to make people care enough to vote.
Conclusion
The juniors are either politician wannabes or kiasu-robotic-history-clerking machines.
All these issues about equality, transparency, manifesto, online voting, etc tires me. Too much for me to handle on an idle Sunday.
They talk too much. I’d like to see what they can do after they take office. Errmm… do you even have enough people for the posts? 
p/s: Best of luck in attracting participants in your future activities. I ‘heard’ that your batch doesn’t like any non-academic activities. Oh, food helps. Offer food… and they will come.
On another note:
Yaa..i also agreed with ***** statement that we should prevent the attitude of ‘aku-tak-pedulisme’.
After all PMCSA is student body for whole PMC community, we have our share there, we pay the money people! Thus we suppose to have at least a little responsibility there…hehe do think about it!!
Yeah, we pay the money. And what do we get from PMC. Nothing. In fact, we have to pay more. Did anyone notice that? So is anyone interested in including this issue in their manifesto?
(update at 9.20pm)
Someone pointed out (after being pointed out by a friend who was pointed out by an office personnel) that the clause on how all expenses incurred during our field trips should be borne by us were inside one of the many loose sheets of papers given to us on registration day. I checked. It is. 
BUT…
Why didn’t the respective departments remind us of this ‘agreement’ during the briefings that we had prior to the trips? Why did the Public Health Department put it as if the accommodation arranged by them would be financed by them as well? The way they briefed us on the trips never suggested that we had to pay for anything except our daily expenditures and travel expenses (which was already A LOT). They only told us that they’ve arranged the accommodation for us so we didn’t have to worry about it. They never said anything like, “We’ve arranged the accommodation for you… but you’re expected to pay us back later.”
For our case in Taiping, we didn’t want to stay at the hotel. The majority opted for the two available hostels. But we were assured that we didn’t have to pay for the lavish accommodation that a minority of the group members insisted upon. Yeah… we didn’t have to pay for it… YET (at that time). And now the time has come for us to pay.
As proud as I am being a PMC student, I also hate its management. Today, my hatred is particularly targeted towards the Finance Department and the Public Health Department.
Apart from that, let it be known that I also hate two of my classmates with all my heart: NORFAZWEEN MD IBRAHIM and SARAH HANIM ELIAS.
Now, the reasons…
Why do I hate PMC’s Finance Department?
Today I saw a mail from them, stating that I owe them RM 342.xx for the field trips that I’ve had during my public health and psychiatry rotations and I am supposed to settle the bill by the 6th of May. No other information was given. No details, breakdown of charges, etc. Just the amount that I’m supposed to pay.
I was also informed (by a friend who went to see the finance people because he wasn’t satisfied with the charges) that we would later have to pay for some petty things such as the dry cleaning of our graduation robes and the translation of our degree scrolls. I saw the invoice given to him. He has to pay as much as I do because we’re in the same groups for both public health and psychiatry field trips. I can’t remember the exact wordings but basically it only states that he has to pay RM329.xx for public health and RM12.xx for psychiatry.
The issues are…
Why do I hate the Public Health Department?
We were required to do researches in the neighbouring states’ districts during our public health rotation; namely Kerian, Manjung, Kuala Kangsar, Taiping, Baling and Kubang Pasu.
They asked us to send in proposals on what issues we would like to do a study on but they warned that they might not approve our topic of interest. Which happened to most (if not all) of the groups involved. THEY gave us a few options for us to pick from. We thought the selection of topics were given to us after they’ve consulted with the district health offices to find out what they needed. But NO… I was surprised when our on-field supervisor (the boss of the district health office; can’t remember the title) quietly asked us why we were collecting those data that they don’t really need. He added that they actually needed data in something else (of which he specified to me). I shrugged and replied, “I don’t know. This is the topic that they gave us.”
Not to mention they do things at the very last possible minute. Imagine having ONE day to come up with a proposal… ONE day to submit our drafts… that kind of things. (Though I think we managed to get extensions to some of the deadlines)
Prior to our trip, we were told by the Public Health Department that they have already arranged the accommodation for us in the districts. They NEVER told us that they were going to charge us for that. We already had to spend a lot of money on petrol and tolls… and they didn’t even have the courtesy to let us know that even though they’ve arranged accommodation for us, we’re going to be charged for it. If we had known that earlier, I’m sure some of us had other alternatives that can be considered (e.g staying with family or friends).
Why do I hate Fazween?
She was our group leader in Taiping and she was also THE ULTIMATE DRAMA QUEEN. Not to mention she has terrible sense of financial management.
Reason 1: She insisted that we moved out from the Rakan Muda complex because SHE saw a ghost and was traumatised by it. Mind you… She called for an emergency meeting at 10pm. She said that she couldn’t spend another night there because she was so scared. She even CRIED!!! Everybody saw her tears. That was why we decided to move out in the middle of the night (by the time we packed, it was already after 11pm) even though it was the last thing we wanted to do (we just moved in 2 days prior. Before that, we were staying at the nurses hostel in Taiping Hospital). We moved out because we pitied her. Because we thought she was REALLY scared.
The following day, I confronted her, asking on what exactly did she see… She openly admitted that she didn’t see anything. She only saw a guy and she was sure that it was a guy, not a ghost. Even if it WAS a ghost, it didn’t bother her because she previously studied in a boarding school and was immuned to ghosts/ ghost stories.
That night we stayed at a hotel. A proper hotel which cost about RM100 per room per night (which we shared between 4 people).
The following day, we surveyed several places. Then Fazween asked us to vote. The majority of us voted the Telekom hostel which was much much more spooky than the Rakan Muda complex (which was VERY nice). Guess what she said? She said, “Oh, we’re not voting yet. I just wanted to see your opinions.” WHAT THE…???!!! Then she went on looking for hotels for us to stay.
We only agreed to stay at the hotel after she assured us that she has made a deal with Prof R who (according to her) promised that we didn’t have to pay for anything. And now we’re being charged RM329.xx for it.
Reason 2: She happily went shopping (with Sarah and a few others) in Feringgi during the weekend that she went back to Penang, buying individual souvenirs for each person in Taiping who was involved in our activities there. FYI, a lot of people were involved. She showed us what she bought and announced thats she wanted to collect money from us. She didn’t even discuss with us on how much should we allocate on the souvenirs (which most of us thought ONE single item to give the district health office would suffice) and suddenly she wanted to collect money from us. I can’t remember the exact figure but if I’m not mistaken, it was somewhere between RM12 and RM16. Note that there were 20 of us in the group. I confronted her on this and she promised to discuss with us from then on when it comes to making any decisions (but it never happened).
Reason 3: After that souvenir incident, like an idiot she was when managing money, she spent more than the RM200 given to us from PMC Department of Public Health for the tea party that we were supposed to organise for the district health office. And she wanted to collect more money from us because of HER lavish expenses.
I can’t recall the exact figures but let’s say we were expecting 40 guests (I think that WAS the figure)… She ordered fried noodles for 40 people AND roti jala for 40 people as the main dish. She asked my room (that’s me, Al, Aishah & Siti) to order kuih and she seemed disappointed that we ordered it from the canteen for a total damage of RM20. Oh, they also ordered cakes and had a doorgift for the guests. They (Fazween and her comrades) never discussed anything with anyone. They simply went and do it… then asked US for money.
When we came back to Penang, I found out that other groups had more than enough money for the tea party so I confronted her. Her excuse was that other groups’ tea parties were organised by the health offices and therefore were able to save money whereas we had to do it by ourselves. Extremely annoyed, I told her, “I can easily manage the tea party for less than RM200 if you had only asked me to do it. You didn’t even discuss with us about it.”
I mean… roti jala for 40… AND fried noodle for 40… not forgetting cakes and kuih… for 40 guests??? Anyone with half a brain would know that that’s much more than enough for everyone. The fried noodles were hardly touched at all by the guests and she had the balls to give it away to the health inspector trainees (they shouldn’t even be invited in the first place!!!). Not to mention the doorgifts. I wouldn’t mind if it only involved HER money.
Reason 4: She’s a terrible group leader. She does not know what group work means and therefore never discussed anything with us. Besides, she (and the group editor) made us write redundant things in our reports of our various visits. She asked me to take pictures of almost all the charts in the hospital during our 1st day there which I think were mostly (90%) irrelevant to any of the reports that we had to write. After a few requests, I lost my patience and told her off. After all, I was only the photographer for the smaller group and not the big group.
20 students would go to each district and these 20 students were further divided into 2 groups of 10 and each group would do a research each on different topics. However, apart from the research project,we also had other common activities for all 20 of us.
Even though I was disappointed to get only a 2nd class honours grade for the reports (other groups easily got 1st class), the feeling of PADAN MUKA DIORANG (because the lecturer said the editor didn’t do a proper editing job of the crappy reports) overwhelmed me to the extent that I was happy to get a 2nd class.
Reason 5: I remember the (big group’s) treasurer timidly (I had previously openly protested on our group leader’s souvenir shopping spree) asked me for about RM20 (if not more) when we got back to Penang. Roughly about RM10 was for the tea party (remember, there were 20 of us… so go figure how much she overspent on the tea party) and the rest was for other things (e.g printer inks, report binding, etc). As if that wasn’t enough… The other small group (Fazween’s & Sarah’s) blamed MY GROUP for overspending. They accused us for using the big group’s budget for our small group’s expenses.
Wei, HELLO!! Just because we bought biscuits and packet drinks for our respondents, didn’t mean we overspent our group’s budget. We only used the money for printing (questionnaires) and buying snacks for our respondents. We only used the money for necessary things. Unlike YOUR group who bought dozens of pens for your respondents to use during your survey when ALL your respondents were high school students and you’re going to do the survery in their school during schooling hours… HOW STUPID WAS THAT?
*** Each small group was given RM200 for our research purposes.
Oh, did I mention how pissed I was when the (big group’s) treasurer informed me that you spent the big group’s money on a ledger book??? The treasurer never ever felt the need to use that book. Oh, and the files that you gave us on our arrival in Taiping? The one with our names nicely printed on it? No one ever used them. Don’t you think it was a waste of money? And you made the decision to buy it without even informing us… much less discuss it.
Oh, oh… the incident when our obnoxiously thick report fell apart despite the expensive binding that you sent it for? Why couldn’t you send it for normal binding? And you didn’t even discuss it with us. What about when you claimed for printer inks? (1) we didn’t really need colour ink and (2) we needed that much of black ink because we were forced to write redundant things in our reports so that each report would be 20 pages long.
Why do I hate Sarah?
Apart from what happened between us personally (which I wouldn’t go through here), she was Fazween’s comrade during our stint in Taiping. I’m sure she was the one who started the ghost story and happily remained quiet and innocent afterwards.
Why am I so sure about this? Because when I confronted Fazween regarding the ghost story, Fazween refused to tell me who saw what. And when I specifically asked if it was SARAH who saw something/ anything, she changed the topic and started accusing me of inappropriately labelling people. By then I’ve already ascertained that ALL the others who claimed to have seen a ghost have actually only seen the lone guy who sat on the bench outside the hostel for two consecutive mornings.
We knew who saw what. That is… a few people saw the guy and we knew exactly who they were. We also knew that T didn’t see anything (she personally told us that) despite the rumour that she saw a pink ghost (why pink? of all colours???). The person who dropped her BMW keys inside the (squatting) toilet bowl admitted to being clumsy and that was the reason of her misfortune… NOT because she was startled to see a ghost.
Then there was only one person left… SARAH. Initially there was a story that she saw something somewhere but somehow the story died off and they concentrated on the ‘ghost’ who sat quietly in the mornings on one of the benches along the corridor outside (it was later confirmed by those who work at the complex and were in the complex in the mornings that the guy was a real human being). In the end, her name was not at all associated with any of the ‘exciting’ ghost stories that had spread to (our friends in) other districts within few hours.
In addition to that, she acted as if she had some authority over the group (which she didn’t). Just because you’re a buddy of the stupid group leader doesn’t make you her official assistant. It was VERY ANNOYING!!! Ok, maybe I was biased because I already had problems with her by the time we went to Taiping… But a few others shared my view.
I heard new stories about the juniors. They’re an incompassionate lot who lack courtesy and communication skills (as if I didn’t know that already). Is there still hope? 
A friend of mine, M shared her experience of going to the hospital on a weekend. She saw F, talking to a patient who refused to answer her medical-related questions but was complaining on the attitudes of certain medical students in the ward. We’ve been in the hospital for nearly 2.5 years now and we’ve never heard such complaints before. Besides, we know who among us are currently posted in that ward and to our experience none of these people have treated patients badly.
In fact, our rapport with the patients are so good that the doctors would often use us to dig out information that the patients decided to withhold from them. We’re part time time medical students, part time spy agents for the doctors. 
I can’t remember during which rotation but I once overheard an MO telling her junior colleague, “Ask the medical students find that out for you. Patients usually open up more to them.”
Sometimes they would tell us something and asked us not to tell the doctors anything about it. We would respect their requests and not give the doctors these information. We’re very ethical. But if we find the information very relevant and important when it comes to the management of the patient’s illness, we would try to persuade the patient to disclose it to the doctors. If they still refuse to do so, we’d talk to the patient, giving appropriate advice and pseudo-counselling (regarding the issue that we’ve unearthed) as if we’re the doctors in charge of them. If they’re still stubborn, we’d drop hints to the doctors that they’re missing something (this rarely happens. I’ve only done it once. Not sure if the doctor picked up the hint or not).
Every now and then, the doctors would ask us to talk to the patient regarding the recommended management because they simply refuse certain things suggested by the doctors… usually surgery and insulin injections. These patients refused treatment because they’re scared. If you spend some time with them, they’d open up to you and tell you their fears. then you can address the issue better and properly explain the illness and proposed management to them. I’ve done it a few times but I remember one case in particular. One middle-aged lady was advised to go for hysterectomy but she refused the surgery. Out of curiosity, I talked to her. She told me her fears. I explained why they wanted to do hysterectomy for her and what the surgery is about. I drew her the female anatomy and explained the procedure. She gave her consent for surgery the following day.
With the current juniors’ approach to patients, the future of our ‘secret service’ seems bleak.
M also told me how she had clerked a case and was looking at the patient’s file at the end of the bed. The patient was in pain after having a drainage tube removed from her abdomen. A 3rd med came over, proceeded to the bed, and asked M, “What does she have?” M patiently gave her a summary of the case despite not being obliged to do so. Then the junior turned to the patient and sort of insisted that she answered her questions even though the patient has started making a reluctant face. M said to the junior, “I think the patient prefers to be left alone. She’s obviously still in pain.” Reluctantly, she left. The patient smiled at M and thanked her.
Al shared another story… A 3rd med (Malay girl who wears tudung) was asking questions to an elderly Muslim lady who had just finished her prayers.
Student : Makcik ada buat seks rambang tak?
Patient : Macam mana tu? Makcik tak faham la.
She went on explaining and asking if the elderly lady has had free sex with multiple partners. Enraged, the poor lady grabbed her sheet of paper and chased her away. Then she started sobbing.
I couldn’t believe the story. We’ve never caused any patient to cry in our 3rd year. I’ve caused a grand total of 2 patients to cry… the first one was a case of major depression during my psychiatry rotation. The second one was quite recently when I was asking about the patient’s social and financial support (which she did not have). Even that, I have never been told off by any patient who has given me consent.
Yes, we have to ask all those questions. However, many patients might find the questions disturbing. It’s not easy to ask the patient if he/ she drinks alcohol (easier if it’s an Indian/ Chinese man) or if he/ she’s had unprotected sex with strangers. Even more if she’s an elderly Muslim lady. Especially one who had just finished her daily prayers prior to the questioning session. You need to be tactful when asking these questions regardless of gender, age and religion…. Not just simply go and shoot point-blank. That is SO inconsiderate. They have feelings too!
When that lady said she didn’t understand the question… 2 things should have been considered by the idiotic junior. (1) The lady was so innocent (i.e she had never done such a thing) she really didn’t understand the question and (2) she was trying to avoid the question. Isn’t that simple common sense? Isn’t she a Malay too? Oh, I forgot. 
These 3rd meds don’t have common sense. Why else would they go into the OT without changing their clothes?
Enough with the juniors. WE got into trouble with the hospital director today. Our group attendance hasn’t been full for quite some time now but today, amazingly, all 12 turned up. Mr A asked us to go to ward A4 (the 1st class ward) to see SS, a patient who he wanted to discuss with us today. He would join us in 15 minutes. With that directive, we trotted to the 4th floor of block A. We were stopped at the entrance by the ward sister who called us out from the nurses counter; asking what were we doing there.
Tiff introduced ourselved and explained to her what Mr A asked us to do. She gave her permission for us to enter. And I started to apologise to her for going straight in without finding her first because I thought the nurses counter was inside… not at the side of the entrance. She assured me it’s ok because she hates the counter herself. “Not patient-friendly,” she said.
Anyway, one of the staff nurses assisted us in getting the case notes and imaging films and we divided into 2 groups. One group went to talk to the patient. The other half remained outside to study the notes and films. I was one of those who remained outside. We were discussing the patient’s CT scan when suddenly a lady doctor accompanied by 2 staff nurses stopped by my side.
Dr : Who are these people?
Nurse : PMC students.
Dr : What are they doing here?
Nurse : They said Mr A asked them to come and see a patient.
At that point, I had already turned to them, acknowledging the lady and prepared to answer her questions. She deliberately ignored me. Took her some time to finally turn to me. By the time she turned to me, I finally noticed her name tag and thought, “Shit! She’s the hospital director!” (I wouldn’t have known who the hospital director is if not because of my friend who wanted to find that out on our interview day last week)
Dr : What are you doing here?
Me : Mr A asked us to come here to clerk a patient and have a look at his notes and films. He said he’ll join us in about 15 minutes.
Dr : How many of you are here?
Me : 12.
Dr : That’s a lot of people. Where’s Mr A?
Me : He said he’ll come in 15 minutes.
By then my friends who were previously engrossed in interpreting the CT scan film started to notice us.
Dr : Do you know what ward this is?
Me : Yes.
Dr : Do you know about patients’ confidentiality?
Me : Yes.
Dr : Do you think the patients who are paying to stay at the 1st class ward would like having you go through their notes? You can’t compare them to the 3rd class patients. (turning to the staff nurse) Did they get consent from the patient?
Nurse : Usually they’ll get verbal consent from the patients.
Dr : No. We have to record if consent has been given. Do they have consent?
Nurse : Some of them have gone to talk to the patient.
Dr : Oh, really?
Then she went on and on about patients’ right on confidentiality and medico-legal issues for a few minutes. I tried to look as apologetic as possible. Don’t know about the others, though. I was trying hard not to look rude by breaking eye contact. And the rest were all standing behind me.
Dr : Which patient did Mr A ask you to see?
Me : (thinking she wouldn’t know where to find the patient if I gave his name) Bed **
Dr : (looking angry again) What is his name? You shouldn’t refer to a patient by the bed number. Always refer to them by their names.
Me : I’m sorry. He’s Mr SS.
Dr : Which bed?
Me : **
She went into the room and talked to the patient regarding consent though I’m sure my friends had done exactly the same thing earlier on. I don’t know what was exchanged between her and the patient as we remained frozen on our spots, still stunned from the encounter. She sauntered back to us, gave us another lecture on confidentiality, consent and medico-legal issues and left.
As soon as we recovered from the initial shock, we packed up the films and sat quietly at the side of the corridor; no longer in the mood to interpret any x-rays or CT scans. The ward sister came to us and started to apologise.
Sister : I guess you guys are really unlucky today. I didn’t know she was coming over. I was busy handling a patient who refused to go down even though we don’t have enough beds here. Suddenly she appeared.
Me : It’s alright.
Sister : Didn’t know you’d get into trouble. Usually that’s what we do. The students introduce themselves to me and I let them in. Then they’ll get consent from the patient. Didn’t you get consent from the patient?
Tiff : Some of us went straight to see the patient. They would’ve asked for his consent.
Sister : Then why didn’t you tell her?
Me : Too stunned to speak.
Sister : I’d have to talk to Mr A about this. It wouldn’t be nice if he heard of it from someone else.
Then she left us to continue with her work. Someone (from my group but can’t remember who) suddenly turned to me and said, “You should be the next hospital director.” Others supported the view. I was totally blank and asked, “Why?” to which someone else replied, “Because you look like one.”
Last time you guys told me I should be a lecturer because I look like one. Now I look like a hospital director? Wow!
In the afternoon, we had a teaching session with Dr L who is better known as “Dr Zaid who stole Aik Hwa’s identity” among us. He really look like Zaid. I’d say at least 70% likeness. But the picture on his staff ID looks a lot like Aik Hwa. Hence the new name. And today was Zaid’s turn to present a case. To quote someone from my group who commented in the morning, “It would be like Zaid presenting in front of the mirror but seeing Aik Hwa as the reflection.”
(Al, we haven’t had his vegetable talk. Should have gone home to sleep instead of going to the teaching today )
Oh, Andrew has a new phone which he refused to let Anas & Mie see. In desperation, Anas asked for my phone (I’m not sure where his was at that time) so that he can call Andrew and make him take out his phone from the pocket to answer the call but Andrew was not to be fooled. He ignored all the calls without even finding out who the caller was.
I didn’t know what was going on until finally Andrew took out his phone after the teaching approximately an hour later.
Turned out Mr S wouldn’t be able to take us for teaching this Friday and therefore he decided to do it this morning. He came into the conference room in the orthopaedics ward, grinned at me, and said, “Are you going to present a case again today?”
Hell, no!
If Anas has Mr L as his new idol… I’m changing mine to Mr S. 
I did a crude survey of the library during lunch hour… Out of the 27 people in the ground floor library, only 3 were from final med and out of the 18 people on the first floor, 7 were from final med.
Anyway…
PMC Indian Cultural Society – South Indian New Year Dinner 2008
Desktop • Class 2008 • PMC Indian Cultural Society – South Indian New Year Dinner 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008 1:59 PM +0800 From:
Vidhya Dharshini Pillay Subject: PMC Indian Cultural Society – South Indian New Year Dinner 2008 To:
Class 2008 Class 2009 Class 2010 Clubs and Societies A. Dzulkiflee Foundation Year 2008 Prof.Peter W.R. Lee
Hi everyone.As some of you may already know, the South Indians are celebrating their
new year next week.The PMC Indian Cultural Society is organizing a dinner to celebrate this
auspicious event.Venue : Palace of India, Queensbay Mall, 2nd Floor, North Zone
Date : Tuesday, 22nd April 2008
Time : 7.30pm
Price : RM 22
Menu : Drink – Free flow of lime juice
Main Course – Tandoori Chicken
Butter Chicken
Kerala Fish Curry
Mutton Rogan Josh
Prawns Masala
Aloo Jeera Fry
Chilli Cauliflower
Dhal
Plain Biriyani
Assortment of Naans
Dessert – Gulab JamunIf you would like to join us, please give your names to any one of the
following people by Wed, 16th April 08 :
Sudha (Class of 2008) – 012*******Vidhya (Class of 2009) – 017*******
Krishanth (Class of 2009) – 017*******
Thanesh (Class of 2010) – 016*******
For those of you who would like to know more about the South Indian New
Year, this is some information just for your interest.South India is made up of 4 states (Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and
Tamil Nadu).People from Karnataka (the Kannadigas) and Andhra Pradesh (the Telugus)
celebrate the new year as Ugadi. It marks the beginning of the Telugu and
Kannada new year, which is also the beginning of spring in the two states.
It is the most important festival for them and it falls on Chaitra
Shuddha Prathipade (Padya). According to Hindu myths, Lord Brahma created
the earth and set days, nights, dates, weeks, fortnights, months, seasons,
and years to count the time. During the Ramayana period, the New Year was
being celebrated on the first day of Uttharayana. So, Chaitra was the
12th month. Varahamihira, a saint who lived in sixth century, started a
new method of celebrating New Year on Chaitra Shuddha Prathipade. His
calculation was based on the onset of spring. Preparations for the
festival begin a week ahead. On the day iteself, people wake up before
the break of dawn, apply coconut oil on their skin and take a head bath
after which they decorate the entrance of their houses with fresh mango
leaves. W
earing new clothes, they offer prayers to God, invoking his blessings
before they start off with the New Year. Ugadi was celebrated on April
7th this year.People from Tamil Nadu (the Tamils) celebrate the new year as
Varshapirappu, which falls on Sunday, 13th April this year. Early in the
morning on this day, the entrance is decorated with Kolam (Rangoli). The
doorways are adorned with mango leaves to mark the auspiciousness of the
occasion. After an early bath, the whole family prays together, after
which the children are supposed to take the blessings of their parents.People from Kerala (the Malayalees) celebrate the new year as Vishu.
Vishu is the first day in the first Malayalam month of Medam, which falls
on 14th April this year. On the previous night of Vishu, fresh
agricultural produce such as rice, paddy, cucumber, jackfruit, arecanut,
coconut and ripe plantains are aesthetically decorated and placed at the
feet of Lord Krishna. The little yellow flowers called Konna Poovu which
are in full bloom during this season are considered a must in this
assemblage which is looked upon as the symbol of prosperity. Precisely at
bramhamuhurtham – the auspicious hour just before sunrise, members of the
family are brought to this assemblage blindfolded. There is a belief that
to catch a glimpse of the reflection of these signs of prosperity in the
mirror at the crack of dawn, would bring prosperity to the individual.
People buy new clothes (vishukodi) for the occasion and the elders of the
family distribute tokens of money to the children, servants and tenants.
These token
s are called the vishukaineetam and are usually in the form of coins.
People carry on this custom believing that in this way, their children
will be blessed with prosperity in future. While the men and the children
engage in bursting crackers, women start cooking a variety of delicacies
for the day`s lunch. The feast or the sadhya is prepared by the women of
the household and the whole family sits down to enjoy the vishu lunch
together. The dishes prepared from the vegetables and fruits that are
abundant in the season like jackfruits, mangoes, pumkins, a variety of
gourds, and coconuts.I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone at PMC a very Happy
New Year.Thank you.
Regards,
Vidhya PIllay
President,
PMC Indian Cultural Society
As usual… how can I say no to an eating event? Especially when it’s a buffet?
I almost had an accident on my way to Queensbay Mall. It was getting dark. It has been a gloomy, cloudy day and started to rain just before I left home. Seeing the terrible traffic on the expressway, I made a u-turn to take another route. The road lights have not been turned on and huge trees line both sides of the road, obstructing what little light is left from the setting sun.
Suddenly an oncoming motorcycle decided to overtake the car in front of him, forcing me to sharply steer my car to the left to avoid collision. But I almost hit another oncoming motorcycle on my left who did not turn on his headlight. I did not see him at all!!! And he was riding on the wrong side of the road. Not to mention he was wearing a black rain coat!!! Thank god I didn’t have a weak heart. I might’ve died of a heart attack there and then.
Some time later…
I was on a 2-lane road and has been giving signal to change lane for a few seconds before finally moving into the right lane. Suddenly a grey Proton Saga (which I did not see coming and was obviously speeding) zoomed past me on the right lane. It was already dark… Still raining… Street lights were not yet turned on… His headlights were off and his car was grey! How was I supposed to see him? So stupid!!! At least, if the car was bright yellow like Sani’s car, it wouldn’t be as hard to see him coming!
Ok… back to the dinner I attended.
I had a great time stuffing myself with Indian food.
I was so busy eating I forgot to take pictures of the meals that we had. Above was my second round with the dishes. My first helping include briyani with tandoori chicken, butter chicken, mutton, chilli cauliflower and I can’t remember what else. Basically I took 2 scoops of everything on the table except the naan, dhal and fish curry (because I didn’t want to queue and by the time I get to the buffet table, the restaurant staff were in the process of replenishing the dishes). Oh, I took 4 scoops of the briyani, not 2.
It was a great event. There were representatives from every ranks in PMC including our president himself and our registrar.
Dr Kieran was so cute… excitedly taking pictures of everyone at every corner until his (camera) batteries died of exhaustion. He could be heard saying things like “Oh, I’ve got to take pictures of you girls!” and “Come over here. Let me take pictures of you lot!” and “Squeeze in, people! Let’s fit in everybody in the picture!” every 5 minutes.
Prof Lee said I ate too much. Thank god he only saw me with my 2nd plate. Can’t imagine what he’d say if he saw my 1st.
Prof Feeney said the juniors (the 4th meds started O&G 5 weeks ago) still have much to do to reach our standard. (He must be kidding. Unlike us, the juniors are so hardworking. Unless what he meant by “standard” was our standard of laziness and not turning up to classes )
Mrs Lyon (jokingly) said I was bossy and Mrs Lee corrected her by saying, “No, you’re not bossy. You’re just… errmmm… more assertive than others.”
Left the restaurant at 9.30pm and went to Borders. Saw Septimus Heap 4 – Queste. It’s finally out. So tempted to buy but there were no hard cover editions. I refuse to buy a paperback because my whole Septimus Heap collection has been hard covers. Will look for Queste in other bookstores this weekend if I remember.
Why is Trudy Canavan’s Black Magician’s Trilogy a trilogy?
Should look for her Age of Five Trilogy. Will do soon. If I can remember.
Updated at 1:02am, 23/4/08: A prequel to the Black Magician’s Trilogy and a sequel trilogy to the trilogy (which will be known as the Traitor Spy Trilogy) will be coming out starting next year!!! Yay!!!
We started orthopaedics today.
I arrived at the clinic at 7.55am. Only Coyeen was there. But to my surprise, there were at least 6 juniors already there… And they were not simply waiting for whoever was supposed to take them… They were looking at an X-ray!!! Before 8am… on the first day of their rotation… in their 3rd year of medical school!!! Really… These people are too much. They don’t belong in PMC. Have the PMC genes mutated over the last 2 years? I wonder what caused it.
As usual, the orthopaedics clinic was extremely crowded. There were 6 consultation rooms (or more?) with more than 2 doctors in each room, plus 3 consultation tables at the corridor. Well, that’s not my point. My point was that Mr A told us (final meds) to divide into 4 groups of 3 because there were 4 rooms for specialists. I went to room 3 with Pushpa and Dayah. Tiff, Zara and Andrew took room 1 while Zaid, Coyeen and Peck Kee stayed in room 4 with Mr A.
Our agreement was to rotate rooms after 1.5 hours. At 9.45am, Me, Pushpa & Dayah went outside room 3 to wait for Tiff & co to leave room 1. Just a few minutes before they came out, Mr S asked us to interpret 2 cervical x-rays. So when Tiff asked to swap, we said, “No, not yet.” We were a bit lost then. Didn’t know what to do. Tiff & co wanted to come in… we didn’t want to leave yet… Well, we wanted to leave. But we were stuck there because of the x-rays.
Dr A, a graduate from PMC, and now an MO in the O&G department suddenly appeared.
Dr A : What are you guys doing out here?
Tiff explained our situation.
Dr A : Then why don’t you just go inside the other rooms?
Tiff : Cannot. The 3rd meds are there.
Dr A : Just kick them out. Ask them to go for roti canai or Rawther… (Rawther is a mamak place situated behind the hospital where PMC students can usually be found lepaking in the morning, having teh tarik or roti canai)
Me : That’s the problem. They don’t do that.
Dr A : I KNOW!!! They’re becoming SOOOOO nerdy!!!
While we were trying to come to an agreement, 2 juniors came and sauntered into room 3 and stood at the end of the room. We were like, “HEY!!!!!!” (though silently). Me and Coyeen started bitching about them. Then they finally noticed us… came outside… and asked if we were supposed to be attached to that room. Thank god Tiff was there to answer them. I know I wouldn’t be able to be as nice as Tiff was to them. Tiff sort of told them off (in a very nice way)… and they left. 
We decided not to swap rooms. Dayah left so Zara joined us. After a while, Zara left. Then Coyeen came to join us. Mr S started talking about something that he thought he taught us last week. Of course we had no idea what he was talking about and told him so.
Mr S : Didn’t I teach you this last week?
Me : No. We just started orthopaedics today.
Mr S : Oh, really? But how come you look so familiar? Déjà vu… Déjà vu…
Me : Maybe that’s because we had a case presentation with you last Thursday and I was the presenter.
Mr S : (obviously wasn’t listening to me) Are you sure you didn’t come to see me to borrow money? Did you borrow money from me?
Me : No. It’s the other way round. You borrowed money from me.
Classes with Mr S are surely fun!!! Last week he taught me how to take a “proper” social history. I presented a case of osteomyelitis secondary to trauma and therefore there wasn’t much to tell in the history. Besides, I’ve never presented a trauma case before so I didn’t really know how to go about such cases.
Mr S : This is your last chance to redeem yourself. Give me his social history.
I went on the usual social history that we’ve been taught to take… smoking, alcohol, married or not, where he lives and with who, employment, financial status, diet and travel history.
Mr S : How do you know he’s financially ok?
Me : Errmmm… He works as a policeman and he’s still getting his monthly pay despite his hospitalisation.
Mr S: What else? Where does he live?
Me : In Teluk Kumbar with his friends. They’re sharing the rent.
Mr S : What kind of house?
Me : Flat.
Mr S : How many of them are staying in the flat?
Me : Errrmmm… I didn’t ask. (seriously… no one has ever asked us this. We only ask patients if they have financial difficulties and we accept their words. In fact many doctors dismiss financial status as being not so relevant to our clerking)
Mr S : What kind of flat is it? How much is the monthly rent?
Me : … I don’t know…
Mr S : Does he have insurance?
Me : …
Mr S : Does he own a car?
Me : No. Just a motorbike.
Mr S : Has he finished paying for the motorbike?
Me : Errmmm…
Mr S : Are his parents rich?
Me : I don’t know.
Mr S : Then how do you know whether he’s financially stable or not?
Me : …
Mr S : Do you think he’s financially stable?
Me : Well… considering he has a full time job and currently still getting his monthly wage, I would say that he’s not too inconvenienced by financial matters.
Mr S : But he’s renting a flat… and sharing with friends.
Me : Therefore the more reason to believe that he does not have much financial burden.
Mr S : How much does one flat cost around here? (asking the entire group)
Someone answered, “About RM500.”
Mr S : (turning to me) So cheap… And yet he has to share with friends.
Me : He can save a lot of money by sharing.
Mr S : How much can he save? At most he can only save RM500.
Me : I think that’s already a lot to his standard.
Mr S : RM500 is not that much… I’m sure your boyfriend is financially stable. Is he?
Me : Errmmm… I don’t have one.
Mr S : Ok then… if you’re looking for a boyfriend, what would you be looking for?
Me : Huh? (really really blur)
Mr S : What would you look for in a guy to make sure he’s financially stable before you consider him as a boyfriend?
He was looking very mischievious so I decided to play along.
Me : Oh, I would see if he owns a car and if he does, what model. Then I would find out if that car was bought by himself or given by his parents. I’d like to know if his parents are rich.
Mr S : (grinning) You’d also want to know if he has finished the installments, right? Ok… What else?
Me : I would also find out what his job is… And how much he gets every month…
Mr S : Anything else?
Me : Apart from that, I would like to know where he lives… The location and the type of house he lives in… Whether he’s renting or the house is his… How much it costs to live there… And if he bought the house, whether he has finished paying the installments.
Mr S : Ok… So do you think this patient of yours is financially stable?
Fine. I’ll admit defeat. The patient was not financially stable.
I screwed up during the physical examination as well. But I didn’t care. I was actually enjoying the session. Earlier on I thought I wouldn’t survive because after a very long morning in the wards, we had to mentally prepare ourselves for a very long afternoon as well (we had classes from 2 – 6pm).
Mr S : Now, would you like to interpret the x-rays?
Me : Errmmm… Can I ask for help from my friends? (usually the tutors like us to pretend as if we’re the only doctors around and therefore we have to do everything)
Mr S : Yeah, sure. As long as she can laugh as loud as you do.
(I couldn’t help but wondered if all the grilling about the patient’s social history was just for fun)
I immediately nominated Pushpa.
It was the most enjoyable case presentation session I’ve ever had.
