"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"!
Ba’ah wanted to change the channel but Mama insisted on watching Majalah 3 on TV3. It was about raya back in the 50s and 60s.
Less than 10 minutes into the programme, Ba’ah spotted a familiar face. It was his secondary school teacher! 
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Well, what do you know?
I’ve been wanting to bring my brothers and sister to watch a 3D movie for quite some time and since the only options that we had (before my brothers return to their respective boarding schools) were Final Destination (which my siblings would not be able to watch as they are still underage) and G-Force, we opted for the latter.
On our way to the movie, we stopped by at Farah’s house since I figured Kona would love to see her cats.
Aurora playing with Kona’s dangling phone accessories
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Aurora…
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Compare with the picture of her taken in February this year…
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MJ, Farah’s new favourite cat…
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When we were about to leave the house, we noticed Aurora resting in one of the flower pots. 
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Ok, I forgot this guy’s name. Sorry.
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G-Force was a sheer disappointment. The storyline is crap, the script is plain, the entire movie is RUBBISH. The only entertainment that we had was the 3D experience, which I’d say has nothing much to shout about, anyway.
Cats and guinea pigs done, we went to have dinner at Pizza Milano.
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Pih, searching for comics drawn by my friend, Atie (no she doesn’t use her real name in the magazine).
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Mae with his spaghetti napolitana.
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I ordered beef lasagna for myself. I thought I’d never say this for a lasagna but YUCKS!!! Lasagna is my favourite dish and I have not said yucks to any lasagna no matter how bad they are but the one at Pizza Milano is a different story… It has very little resemblance to lasagna.
It’s the weird-tasting paste in between each pasta layer that contributes to the ‘yucks’ factor. I had to remove them all before I can eat my ‘lasagna’.
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Good thing I also ordered a margherita pizza as a side dish for myself (I always do when having lasagna as my main dish ). It was nice. 
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Last Thursday, I took the opportunity of being on leave to take my brothers and sister to Petrosains at KLCC (after much persuasion from my parents since all I could think about was sleep, sleep and more sleep ).
The Dino Trek exhibition was on so I decided to get us combo tickets to enter both Dino Trek and Petrosains. I thought the tickets were cheap (RM40 for 4 of us), compared to the last time I went there. I thought it cost me almost RM20 to enter the place back in 2001. Or perhaps it was just my imagination…
Dino Trek exhibition on Dinosaurs. Nothing much for me here as I’ve been reading a lot about dinosaurs since I was small (yes, I was one of the nerdy kids who loved anything to do with dinosaurs ).
Even though it was estimated that the tour inside Dino Trek would take about 30-60 minutes, we only spent 15 minutes there.
The exhibition reminded me of a similar but more extensive dinosaur exhibition that we went to in the mid 90s at the parking lot opposite Subang Parade (now site of apartment/ office buildings).
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We then proceeded to Petrosains, where many regard as a big high-tech playground, even among the adults. Kids were running around, excitedly talking at the top of their voices (really, the place was like a market), PLAYING with exhibition items without bothering to read any of the explanations. That’s still ok, considering they’re kids. They don’t know any better.
(Though it’s really really extremely ANNOYING when a small person suddenly appeared next to me and started pressing random buttons or moving random items and immediately ran away to another display to do the exact same thing)
But the adults… They’re really a disappointing lot. Instead of trying to teach their children (many of the children are actually grown up, about 9-12 years old who should already be able to READ) to appreciate the scientific explanation behind all those interesting ‘toys’, they themselves never bothered to read anything, but PLAY they did!
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Having been there before, and having watched lots of documentaries on geological events of the earth, I actually skipped this part. 
Yes, shame on me for bashing others who didn’t read while I myself didn’t read as much as I should have.
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We were just in time for a show at the science centre/ corner/ whatever,
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Unlike my introverted siblings (who wouldn’t even sit there), the other kids were excited to take part in the activity.
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Being gamers, my brothers and sister couldn’t resist testing their skills at managing their own F1 teams. Being used to playing F1 managing games (and not shy to brag about it), Pih won all the races while Mae came in second and Kona third.
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Kona was disappointed to see that she wasn’t tall enough to try out the racing car (actually, she was more mad at us for making fun of her )…
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But guess who is playing? A tiny boy much much smaller than Kona; who had his mother pressing the pedals for him. Needless to say, he was ‘driving’ all over the place like a drunk man. He was on the wheel for quite some time while others who could better appreciate such driving experience and more qualified (read: height above the red line) quietly looked and probably also cursed at him and his mother.
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Anyway, I tested the speed of my karate chop. The recorded speed was 61.7km/h! I actually had several other attempts which I thought was faster, but they went undetected. 
Many macho looking guys tried to beat my score (they were observing my attempts) but to no avail. The fastest one of them managed to do was 53.4km/h (yes, I was unashamedly hanging around the area, and peeking to see the results ). Pih also tried many times but the best he could get was around 45km/h.
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At 4pm (after almost 4 hours being inside), we made our way out. Since the ride was meant for our comfort and enjoyment (yes, they actually wrote that down in a notice on the wall), Pih and Kona actually propped their sore feet up.
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Oh, we didn’t miss the opportunity to take pictures of the cardboard cartoon by Lat on display at the concourse.
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If you think there were not many people around the exhibition area, think again.
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Just in case anyone is interested to know, the last time I went to KLCC was when I went to Petrosains in 2001. KLCC is simply NOT a place of interest to me… I DO like its Kinokuniya but I think the place is just too far from my house and not worth the travel time especially if I were to take the public transport (which, really, is my best option).
For more pics, please visit my GALLERY.
Visited Mama’s brother in Kapar today. Kona, being Kona, spent the time with her DS.
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From there, we visited another relative whose house is just a few doors away.
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Upon returning to Shah Alam, we stopped by at Burger King for a quick dinner. After helping ourselves to nasi himpit, kuah kacang and rendang earlier on, I wonder how these people can still eat one set of BK meal each.
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Ok, back to work tomorrow.
The food pictures are dedicated to Matyi who is currently in Canada.
On Raya eve, we had lemang (bought, OF COURSE!) for breaking fast (but I had KFC instead because of intense craving for the OR chicken )
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Mama cooked some chicken rendang to go with the lemang.
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We began our journey south to Muar, Johor after the Eid prayers (though we actually woke up too late to go for the prayers ) on Saturday.
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First stop was my mum’s stepmother’s house in Muar. It wasn’t difficult to find the house as it is situated right opposite a (Muslim) cemetery.
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We found this antique phone on display on one of the cabinets inside the house.
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Behind the house was this bush which is not an ordinary one. It is a Roselle plant.
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A Roselle flower bud…
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Also found in the backyard was kecubung plant. According to Mama’s stepmother, the fruit (or is it the leaves?) can help you in getting pregnant with a baby BOY if you’ve been trying hard to get one without any success.
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Anyway, back inside, the usual raya dishes were served along with Roselle drink which I don’t really like because of the weird sour-ish after taste. My famiily loved it, though.
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Ketupat…
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From there, we proceeded to Mama’s cousin’s house in Serom. Out of boredom, me and Pih searched through some really old books, many of which were Mama’s when she was still in school. However, the most precious finding was this picture of my mum…
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Oh, by the way… Mak Uda told me this: Mohd Zin bin Abdul Samad bin Munai bin Daeng Raya. Question answered.
We were just hanging around, doing nothing when a marhaban group (something similar to Christmas carols for Christians) arrived. Actually, the kids arrived first. They were running as if in a 100m sprint competition.
And they were the ones who shouted their lungs out during the marhaban.
Interesting to note that there were no young adults in the group. Perhaps the young generation is simply not interested in such tradition.
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After helping themselves to the cookies, snacks and drinks (it was their 24th house for the day! Those kids really have big tummies ), the children scampered off to the neighbouring house… Just to be called back by the adults because they were going to visit the one across the road first.
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Later in the afternoon, we went cycling. Yeah, we city folks had not cycled for quite some time and became very excited to see some old rusty bicycles sitting idly by the stairs.
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Not long after that, our relatives from Segamat arrived. All 5 cars of them.
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Followed by a family friend’s family.
Mother hen guarding her chicks from the lads.
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Despite planning to leave at 6pm (so that my brothers can watch the much awaited football match on Astro), it wasn’t until 6.30pm when we finally began to make our move. But not before taking a group picture.
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And for the girls, the opportunity to model by the window was not to be missed.
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Soon, it was really time to leave.
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It was a good gathering.
Selamat Hari Raya (or Eid Mubarak or happy Eid if you prefer), everyone!
For more pics, please visit my GALLERY.
I’ve had a memorable Ramadhan, especially during my stay in the ED’s fever centre.
On Wednesday, we had a Majlis Berbuka Puasa in the ED, organised & sponsored by the Head of Emergency Department.
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We (the Fever Centre staff) grabbed our portions and returned to our corner to enjoy the food.
The packed food was part of our daily provision for breaking fast. Thanks, ED, for giving us free food DAILY without fail!
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The main attraction during the Majlis Berbuka Puasa was of course, sate.
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On Thursday, there were no packed food for us as there was already a mini Jamuan Berbuka Puasa being organised by someone else in the ED.
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I am certainly going to miss ED when I go back to surgical next week.
On another note, it is obvious that everyone else is already in their raya mode/ mood.
On Thursday, the usual 25-minute drive to work (45 minutes during rush hour) took me 1 HOUR… and it was at 2.30pm!!! I only managed to get on the NKVE (Kelana Jaya exit) 45 minutes after leaving home (in Shah Alam).
Right after the toll booth at the Kelana Jaya exit (from the Federal highway).
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Crawling myself silly to get on the NKVE.
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Obviously I was late for work that day. Thank god the traffic cleared after Damansara. Otherwise, I would have arrived at work much much later.
For others, it was time to balik kampung but for me, I was VERY late for work.
I’m getting the day off for Raya, thanks for asking.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to join a kacau dodol activity near my house. They started around 2pm but I only joined them around 6pm because I was still recovering from the bad call that I had the night before. I slept like the dead, waking up to realise there were 12 missed calls on my phone which was right next to my pillow.
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Kids… (yes, I too used to play with fire whenever I had the opportunity to do so; which was almost a daily event when I stayed with my grandparents back in 1996 )
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Anyway, I was just supposed to go there and take pictures but I couldn’t resist offering to help. I mean, how often do you get such a chance, right? Besides, they didn’t have enough people at that time so an extra pair of hands was more than welcomed.
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More people arrived just as I was about to leave the place. Too late, people. The photographer was already leaving.
For more pictures (not many since I was busy stirring the dodol myself ), please visit my GALLERY. Some of the pictures were actually taken by other people, not me (hey, I was busy! ).
So far, the fever centre has not been too busy and I am certainly enjoying it.
Not only they have very nice and efficient staff nurses and JM (community nurse), they also provide us with free food for breaking fast!
My fever centre team, enjoying our (free) feast. The briyani was really good.
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However, things can be very unpredictable when it comes to emergency situations (otherwise, it wouldn’t be called emergency, would it? ).
2 days ago…
It was around midnight. The ED was relatively very quiet.
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The fever centre was empty.
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Alex and our JM took the opportunity to watch a movie.
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While I retreated to my favourite desk…
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And started to crochet.
A baby blanket project that I started many many months ago but didn’t have time to finish.
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About an hour later, the alarm rang in the resuscitation zone; which marked the start of a nightmarish call in the ED (we always help out in the resuscitation zone if there are no patients in the fever centre).
From 2am until 6.30am, we had to resuscitate a total of 5 patients and there was a time when there were 2 simultaneous CPR going on. 2 patients died that night despite our efforts to save them.
I even had the chance to actually shock a real patient (not on a dummy, like I did before) before being entrusted with the task of closely observing that uncle and to deliver further shocks if need be.
He came in to the hospital much earlier complaining of chest pain and immediately started on several medications. I’m not sure what really happened but he was initially in the green zone. Then he was admitted to the observation ward. After a while, he was transferred to the yellow zone (semi-critical) before being transferred to the red zone (critical a.k.a resuscitation zone).
At that time, he was still very stable and comfortable, chatting around and making jokes with us. He even asked his wife to go home first.
Less than half an hour later, he developed a major heart attack and we had to immediately start CPR on him. After about half an hour of resuscitation, countless shocks and a few broken teeth (common complication during difficult intubation), he became stable.
Just when we thought we could take a breather, there was another admission to the red zone. The patient was just discharged from the medical ward that morning and yet he could present that night to the ED with severe acute pulmonary oedema. Despite our attempts to save him, he died.
Then the heart attack uncle’s condition deteriorated, requiring CPR and more shocks. While we were still doing CPR on this uncle, the alarm sounded again.
Another admission. Also requiring active resuscitation. I was entrusted with the task of handling and looking after the heart attack uncle while others ran to attend to the new patient.
We resuscitated the other patient for almost an hour (yes, I went to help out with that patient too since the heart attack uncle was relatively more stable then) before finally giving up. There was nothing we could do to save him. He was pronounced dead at around 6.30am.
After that, all of us sort of semi-collapsed all over the place. I fell asleep sitting on a chair at one corner while Alex doze off at the nurses counter. Our MOs fell asleep on chairs in the fever centre (at least they managed to get some privacy, unlike us. ).
I woke up at 7am, returned to the fever centre and continued to sleep until 7.30am when my colleagues who were doing the morning shift arrived.
Oh, that heart attack uncle survived the night but I don’t know what happened next. All I know is he was transferred to the medical ward as the ICU was already full.
It was definitely an exhausting experience.
Initially I planned to work on Raya day(that would be the Eid celebration, for my foreign readers). I had announced to my colleagues in O&G that I wouldn’t mind to cover for them by doing the calls during that Raya weekend before realising that by then I would have already been in another posting.
So I had set my mind to work during the Raya weekend; the reason being I was sure that priority for leaves would be given to the more senior HOs (in the new department). Besides, I don’t mind working during that period of time, hence it would not be a problem for me to cover for my friends.
However, the superiors in my new department insisted that all the Muslims go off to celebrate the day. Therefore I applied for 3-day leave with the weekend as my (once monthly) weekend off (yes, we have to work on weekends too . So are you – for those planning to work in Malaysia- sure you still want to be a doctor? Your call. Consider yourselves warned.), making it a total of 5 days off for me to celebrate Raya (probably by sleeping the days off )
My application was approved. And I started bragging to anyone and everyone worth bragging about it.
However, yesterday I received a call from my Head of Department saying that I would be going to the ED starting today to help out at the Fever Centre (the ED started ‘borrowing’ HOs from other departments since the recent H1N1 outbreak in Malaysia).
Since I would still be in the ED during that Raya period, my leaves are considered void because I would not be under his department so he suggested that I get my Chinese friend to replace me during the 5 days that I am supposed to go on leave. I told him that it is simply not possible as she would be covering the Muslims by doing calls for the department during that period and there is no other way but for him to cancel my leaves (talk about being noble ).
He said me he’d think of something so that I can go off for Raya but I assured him that I don’t mind working on Raya day. In fact I had set my mind right from the beginning that I’d be spending my Raya day at the hospital. He then said it’s really up to me and if I still want the weekend off, he’d think of something (such a nice HOD! ).
Anyway, today I started my 2-week stint in the ED and the latest roster was posted sometime in the afternoon. Surprise! Surprise! All the Muslims are getting 2 days off for Raya without us having to apply for leave at all!!!
I know my colleagues in the wards are jealous of us in the ED. Sorry, guys.
So, yes. I’ll be celebrating Raya, after all. I don’t know whether or not I’m happy with it, after all the turnings that my mind has done.
* ED – Emergency Department (also known as ER or A&E in other places)
I am not proud to announce that the first time I had to put a condom (putting condom on a transvaginal ultrasound probe doesn’t count, does it?) on a penis belonging to an alive person… was on a limp one. That just shows how pathetic and unexciting my sex social life is (more like non-existent, really).
It all started with him refusing the insertion of urinary catheter…
Thank god nothing happened (ahem… ) when I fumbled with the stupid condom and his you-know-what. Hey, can’t blame me! I’ve never seen that thing (the urine condom, not the penis ) before. Even the (much more experienced) staff nurses didn’t know what it was.
Took me a few minutes to secure it while he kept telling me that he was embarrassed to have me put on that thing on him (he’s 24 years old); making me embarrassed too because I wasn’t embarrassed to carry out the ‘procedure’.
Oh, well. Work is work.
*** Preparing myself for loads of sperms spams to come in but I think it’s worth it. ***