Back From Italy!

Italy was awesome! Great sights, great food and excellent weather!

Initially, I was slightly disappointed by anarchic Napoli, but Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri and Rome were absolutely fantastic!

Whew~~!

It's been great fun - but pretty tiring as well!

Now to get the household chores done and my laundry washed!

More updates on Italy to come soon!

Last Day At Chesterfield...For Now!

I was asked to take blood from a registrar today!

Apparently, he wanted to get a LFT done on his blood (no idea why, so don't ask me) when he chanced upon us students lazing in the on-call room.

One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was "volunteered" to take his blood! Hahaha!

It was really nerve-wracking because:
1. He was a registrar.
2. I had to use the syringe and needle which I had never used before instead of the vacutainers I was pretty familiar with.
3. I had an audience.
4. No friendly house officers were going to step in should I fail or in the event that anything goes wrong.
5. Did I mention that he was a registrar?

Bloody hell - I've never been that nervous taking blood! I bet I was more relaxed when I had to take blood for the first time compared to today!

Thankfully, everything went alright and I managed to draw blood from him in one attempt.

Phew!

I guess all that practice paid off!

On different note, today was our last day in Chesterfield before we go off for our 4 week summer break.

I can almost detect a palpable sense of relief from the patients. No more questioning, prodding and poking by the pesky medical students.

LOL!

Anyways, it's been a great 4 weeks - I can honestly say that I've enjoyed every day I've spent there!

Yeah, it's quite tiring and all that, but when you have friendly and helpful PRHOs, SHOs, SPRs and consultants who go out of their way to teach you stuff, it doesn't seem so much like a chore anymore!

So many thanks to everyone at the CRH for teaching us, showing us stuff and generally tolerating our presence all this while!

And to the PRHOs and SHOs who are leaving in August for their next rotation, I wish all of you the best of luck in your new jobs as well!

To the rest (nurses, SPRs, consultants, etc) - we'll be back to get in your way again in the last week of August!

Until then, take care!

Some Books I've Recently Read...

The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri)

Savage Garden (Mark Mills)

JPod (Douglas Coupland)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J. K. Rowling)

Flying Solo!

I was asked to do consultations with patients by a consultant in his clinic today - alone!

Took histories. Did examinations. The works, basically.

After each patient, I had to present the case history and the examinations' findings to the consultant, who would "follow up" on what I did.

It was pretty nerve-wracking at first.

Mainly because it wasn't like they were the consultant's "regulars" or anything - all of them were new referrals by GPs.

I mean, what if I miss something really important in the history?

What if I fail to pick up some really obvious sign?

What if I offend any of them?

Thankfully, 4 patients and a cup of tea later, the consultant didn't have to retake any histories or redo any examinations from scratch.

Phew. What a relief.

Soft Drink Thoughts

Tried some Dr Pepper - didn't like it.

Tried some "spicy" Jamaican Ginger Beer - didn't like it.

Tried some Bitter Shandy - didn't like it.

Really, I should just stick to Coke/Pepsi.

No Title

Barely 15 minutes after I see my first patient in Chesterfield, he passes away.

The first patient that I tried to take blood from earlier last week died during the weekend.

The patient who praised me for doing a great job taking blood from her yesterday died last night.

Fuck.

LOL

I was happily wandering in Slumberland during a meeting today - until my pager bleeped.

It was such a shock, I almost swore aloud in surprise as my body went from "Standby" to "Panic" mode in milliseconds.

One of my partners who was observing me while I was asleep said that it was pretty hilarious to watch.

Apparently, I literally jumped up and scrambled for my pager in a panic when I received the bleep.

Luckily I didn't fall out of my chair or something.

And thank goodness that it was a large meeting - it would have obvious to everyone if there were only a handful of people present.

Anyways, the bleep turned out to be from my super-nice PRHO Julianna, who told me that she had a couple of patients for me to bleed.

I feel so bad because she went out of her way to let me know that there's interesting stuff for me to do - but I was fast asleep when she paged me.

Thankfully, I made it to where she was in record time. I would have kicked myself if I had made her wait.

Argh.

Gotta stay awake. Need more coffee.

Fun Fun Fun!

Bwargh!!!

Tried taking blood from a patient but failed to get any blood!

Thankfully, I didn't give him a humongous haematoma.

It's so much easier on the training dummy's arm - I guess I have to just keep practising on real patients!

My apologies in advance, dear patients!

However, on the plus side, my history-taking and basic examinations are a lot more fluid and natural.

Well, I guess that's what comes of taking a couple of histories and doing some examinations each and every day.

Also managed to watch a refashioning of an amputation stump!

It was a bit gory since it involved cutting out a section of remaining bone - but the moment where a small artery was cut and blood was spurting out of it onto the floor was quite funny!

The surgeons cauterized it really quickly, though. Aww.

Yes, I know that I'm sick.

But it's weird, because I've never really liked the sight of gore or blood before.

I guess anyone can get used to anything, sooner or later.

Coffee With Consultants...

This is how not to start a day :-

15 minutes after you arrive at the wards for the daily morning ward rounds, a patient takes the mighty leap to reach the Pearly Gates.

To make it worse, it was a patient that you had just gone in to see barely 5 minutes ago.

Not a good start at all for Day Two at Chesterfield.

However, it got better and better as the day wore on.

After the ward rounds, we followed the consultants, specialist registrars, senior house officers and the house officers to the nearby restaurant for a post-ward rounds meeting.

I sort of expected the affair to be 100% medicine-orientated, but our meeting turned out to be a really informal event.

So informal that the topics discussed in the "meeting" were good places to get curry, reputable and disreputable takeaways, good restaurants and experiences in examining medical students in the OSCE.

I guess I'm really lucky to be attached to Chesterfield.

Everyone over here is really friendly and they make you feel as though you're actually part of the team and not just another pesky medical student who gets in the way of everything.

For instance, the junior doctors, SHOs and the SpRs are really keen to teach us stuff and include us in discussions regarding patients' treatments.

An example - a SHO took us to see "interesting" cases in the morning, teaching us loads of history-taking skills in the process.

Another example - the junior doctor we were attached to taught us how to insert a cannula into patients and how to read chest and abdominal X-rays.

Another example - the consultants allowed us into the OTs to watch not one but two operations that they were carrying out, explaining stuff to us the entire time.

Add that to the fact that we get free lunches every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

I think I love the Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

Seriously.

Chesterfield - Day One!

Yay!!

It's a historical moment - I've received my first hospital pager ever!

Historical moments aside, it's slightly a mystery to me as to why the Chesterfield Royal Hospital even bothers giving these pagers out to medical students.

I mean, if an emergency did occur and by some miraculous chance they decide to page us medical students, what would we do?

Run around like headless chickens?

Get in the way of everyone while they're trying to resuscitate the poor patient?

Get traumatised by jets of blood spurting out of someone's corporeal shell in this mortal world and promptly faint, giving them another casualty to be treated?

What I think is - if there's an emergency, they'll bleep us to let us know what's going on.

So we can hide somewhere and make ourselves scarce. And hopefully not get in anyone's way in the process.

LOL.

Seriously though, it's a really nice touch by the hospital.

It kinda makes us feel more involved, I guess. It makes all of us feel like we're part of the team and not just outsiders watching and doing nothing

Although we're not doing really much at the moment.

But I guess watching, learning and practising is pretty much what we're supposed to do at the moment anyways.

Mmm...Yummy!

I bought a prawn and crab sandwich from Scott's Pantry today - and it was absolutely delicious!

For two pounds and twenty pence, this is what you get:

Loads of prawns.
Loads of crab meat.
Salad (with slices of hardboiled eggs).

All wrapped up in a wonderfully soft and delicious bun-like bread thingy.

It was just so good, it literally made my day.

I think I just found my current favourite sandwich! Hahaha!

Wut?! Floods In Sheffield??

Unbelievable.

I never expected it to flood over here.

Especially when rain wasn't all that heavy. It was just raining continuously for a day.

Heck, back home it rains continuously for days on end during the monsoon season.

But flood it did, and it was a pretty huge disaster as well.

At first, I didn't know the scale of the flooding because I left for lectures first thing on Monday morning.

However, as the day wore on, news slowly filtered in.

Fatalities.

The River Sheaf bursting its banks.

Cars being swept away.

Dams in danger of bursting.

Closure of several highways.

I knew it was pretty serious the moment I heard about the dams.

The first time I heard about dams in danger of collapsing, my Dad's hometown was submerged under at least 6 feet of water soon after.

I hoped it wouldn't happen here.

Thankfully, the dams held.

And it was pretty lucky that the area around the University wasn't affected at all.

No, the humongous puddle at the bottom of Northumberland Road doesn't count.

The only major disruption around this area was a brief cut in the power supply while repair work was being carried out in the substations around Sheffield.

I'm not sure how long it'll take for everything to be back to normal again.

But I'm hoping the roads or the train lines will be up and running as fast as possible - I still have to get to Chesterfield this coming Monday!

Where's My Hair???

Finally got my hair cut - after 9 months of growing it out.

Why?

Well, so that the patients I'll be talking to next week won't get the impression that they're talking to a small English sheepdog (see picture).



A small, Asian, English sheepdog.

And my hair had sort of reached the length where annoyingly enough, was still too short to tuck behind my ears but was long enough to get into my mouth whenever I ate.

To cut a long story short, I got it trimmed short.

Now I'll have to wait another 9 months to get my English sheepdog look back.

Brrr.

My head's feeling colder already.

Two Beautiful Stories

Watch the first, read the latter. They're amazingly good. Period.

La Vita E Bella (Life is Beautiful) - a 1997 Italian film

The Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

Is It Summer Yet?

Time really does fly.

In just an instant, Spring has come and gone and now it's Summer. Although Summer has been pretty damp the past couple of days.

Come on, bring on blue and sunny skies! Let there be warm and breezy days! Summer should be Beautiful Weather Galore!

Not a Persistent Mist-Blanketed Incessant Drizzle, which pretty much sums up the weather for the past two days. And projected by the Met Office to remain as such for two more days at least.

However, even though the weather's been pretty miserable the past few days, I've been enjoying it so far.

You must think I'm nuts. I think I am, too.

After all, what's there to like about gloomy skies and wet days?

It's weird, but I find a certain charm in mist-blanketed surroundings with a persistent, gentle drizzle.

Somehow, it all feels very English and when I look around me I think "how appropriate".

Just like the settings of a story book.

What's missing are the ivy vines creeping up the side of buildings, weeping willows by a stream and mild-mannered cows chewing their cud by the fence.

But those sights aren't very common in a city, I guess.

I mean, if I saw cows chewing their cud by a fence, my first instinct would to look for an overturned trailer or something similar.

But I guess I have to be thankful for what I have. It is pretty pleasant living where I am right now.

Although maybe one day I'll get bored of it and look out of my window and go "What horrid weather" instead of "Ah, it looks nice".

Maybe someday the charm of it will wear off, maybe not.

But until that day comes, I'll just enjoy every moment of it.

Bring It On!

I can't believe that it's already the night before Phase 2!

In so many ways, I'm really looking forward to this new academic year!

It feels as though I've jumped (or at least stumbled) over some invisible hurdle to finally begin my training proper!

Things are going to get a lot harder from now on, but I know it's time for me to buck up and persevere!

I've come this far - I'm not about to give up!

All I can say is, bring it on!!!

That's Your Reply?

Congratulations! You've made my day!

I was expecting a few lines of bitching - but to get that many paragraphs full of high-quality bitching?

I am so very impressed!

Really!

And thanks for listing down all those qualities in me that I've never (honest-to-goodness never!) seen in myself such as being a rude and arrogant hypocrite, a sad wannabe-cool-dude and an alcoholic to boot.

And sure, go ahead and insult my intelligence. I know I'm not the smartest guy in the world, so I suppose the point you made is valid.

As much as I'd like give a reply to each and every point that you've made, I really can't be bothered.

However, if you really insist that I give you a reply to everything that you've written - let me know and I'll give all my replies to you in person.

For the other party's side of the story, kindly visit www.xanga.com/lizzyc_10

Beer Review Part Four - Cobra Beer

Cobra Beer



A 660ml bottle of this Indian beer will cost about a pound and seventy pence, which makes it pretty cheap. I don't remember seeing this beer being sold back home, but according to Suresh, it's pretty easy to get around here.

I would describe the taste of this beer as slightly sweet with an uncomplicated medium-strength flavour, which feels really smooth and easy to drink.

This beer came as a great surprise to me because I thought that a much stronger beer would suit Indian cuisine better. Heck, Suresh even said that this was as subtle as Indian beers get!

According to Wikipedia, this beer was originally meant for the British market even though it was brewed in India - which pretty much explains the flavour of this beer.

This beer would be an excellent accompaniment to meals up to strength of a kurma curry. Anything beyond that would definitely drown out the taste of this beer.

I would also recommend that you drink this beer on its own just to appreciate its wonderful flavour since it's so smooth and easy to drink. If I had to make an analogy, this beer would be a not-so-sweet Kronenbourg 1664.

Salty snacks should go well with this beer because it has a clean taste and is not too sweet. Nevertheless, I would still prefer a dry beer that's both crisp and clean over this beer to have salty snacks with.

But that's just my opinion - try it with snacks and you might find that this beer really suits your tastes!

Summary:
A really easy to drink, medium-strength, slightly sweet-tasting beer. Priced really reasonably for a beer as good as this one. Should go well with both meals and snacks. Try this beer and be pleasantly surprised!

Beer Review Part Three - Asahi Super Dry

Asahi Super Dry



Without a doubt, this is my favourite Japanese beer. You might think it's pretty exotic considering that it's after all, Japanese, but I assure you that you can find this beer in almost every major supermarket in the UK.

A 500ml bottle typically costs a quid fifty, which makes it pretty expensive considering that this beer is locally brewed in the UK and is not imported all the way from Japan.

Those of you who are looking for something truly Japanese might be put off by the fact that it's brewed in the UK, which doesn't make it Japanese any more.

And I really do understand where you're coming from, I really do.

But trust me on this - I've drank this beer when I was in Japan and honest-to-goodness, it really does taste exactly the same in both countries!

Down to business. The name of this beer is pretty much self explanatory as to what it tastes like. Super dry. Which pretty much means that it's very crisp and clean, to the point where some actually describe it as flavourless.

I think that this beer actually has a very light flavour and a light malty aftertaste. Having a very clean finish, I would describe the aftertaste from this beer as fragrant because it's so incredibly mild.

This would be the kind of beer that I would pour into small glasses and savour every mouthful slowly - simply because it feels so clean on my palate and the light malty aftertaste is just perfect, not overpowering nor too weak.

Suresh thinks that this beer is rather similar to a Peroni Nastro Azzurro, since both are clean and light beers, and having tasted both, I agree with him. So if you can't find an Asahi Super Dry, try looking for a Nastro Azzurro instead!

A dry beer such as this one is a great accompaniment to salty snacks. Avoid strong tasting drinks or food since they will drown out the mild flavour of this beer and prevent you from fully appreciating its taste.

Summary:
A slightly expensive beer, may be hard to get depending on where you are. Has a very light taste with a clean finish. Tastes great just by itself but also goes very well with salty snacks. Avoid curries when drinking this beer.

And You Expect Me To Be Understanding?

How old did you say you were?

No, seriously.

How do you expect anyone to take you seriously when for no good reason, you just act as though the whole world has aggrieved you in some manner?

And you're so damned self-centred that you don't notice that your actions are affecting the people around you.

I should have obviously known better - the world revolves around you, doesn't it?

Maybe it was our fault, or even my fault. Maybe we wronged you in some way. But honest to God, if we did, I have absolutely no idea what it was.

And if it was really my fault, tell it to my face and I'll apologize to you.

Nobody's telepathic - we can't magically read your thoughts and be all kind and understanding whenever you angry.

But don't expect me to cower in fear of you whenever you're in a foul mood and you think you can get away with acting like you own the whole damned world.

My patience has improved over the past few years - but not by that much.

You piss me off, and I'll make sure that you know I'm pissed off.

So go ahead and just throw a proper tantrum. We get your point. You're obviously pissed off about something. It's just that we have no idea what it is.

But fuck me, it's not like I care anyway. Not until you grow up.

Results!

I don't know what to say besides that it was utterly unexpected!

I managed to get pretty good results this year even though I thought any chance of scoring the best grade was pretty much out the window after the horrendous first paper!!!

Phase 2, here I come!

Just One Of Those Days...

Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was me being cooped up in my room for too long. Maybe it was me being worried about everything and yet nothing.

Whatever it was, it wasn't a very good start to my day.

Why?

Every once in a while, I have a day which I spend a couple of hours just so incredibly deep in thought that I myself find it rather unhealthy to be that introspective.

What do I think about?

Well, just about everything, for that matter. The past, the present and the future. Things I've done, things I'm doing and the things I should do. People I've known and people I know. That kinda stuff.

Today was one of those days.

I just felt a sudden, overwhelming nostalgia when I was thinking about the past. I found myself missing the people I knew, the life I led, the things I've done and the places I've been. And without realising it, I found myself wishing that I could be where I was half a decade ago.

Don't get me wrong - I have absolutely no regrets doing what I'm doing now and being where I am today.

But to know that I can never go back to those carefree days, surrounded by some of the best friends one can possibly have, I can't help but feel a bit of sadness.

And you know what? I'm afraid, too. Afraid that the bonds that were built over between us all these years would be broken once we part ways in order to pursue the paths we chose for our own lives.

In short, I dread the day we meet up once more only to find ourselves talking to complete strangers.

I know moving on is part and parcel of growing up. I know that all of us will inevitably move further and further away from each other with time as we find our way in the world.

But deep down, I really don't want that to happen.

Deep down, I want us to remain that group that stuck together through primary school, secondary school and college forever. Although I know full well that it's impossible.

Bloody hell, I really have to grow up - I sound like a prepubescent kid.

So I kinda went about my day feeling a little bit down - which is usually what happens when I think too much about Life in general - until I had a long conversation with Jem in the afternoon.

We chatted about basically everything and yet nothing for nearly two hours. Yet, our conversation did more to lift my spirits than me watching 24 episodes of Scrubs in a row.

It felt really good to find that we were still able to talk like we used to years ago. To know that despite me being halfway across the world and seeing him just once a year, our friendship was still there.

Jem, if you're reading this - thanks for being there for me. You really made my day.

And I wasn't kidding when I said that missing everyone back home sounded "bleargh". It really sounds bloody corny.

But I wasn't kidding at all about missing everyone back home.

Beer Review Part Two - Heineken Pilsener

Heineken Pilsener



This is a pretty common beer, methinks. You can just about buy it anywhere, so this is definitely not one of the more exotic beers.

Heck, back home, this is the beer I usually buy in 6-packs from the Giant hypermarkets for my own consumption.

Definitely not one of the harder-to-find beers.

Let's begin with a quick word on the "economics" of this beer - it's Dutch, and a pint will cost somewhere averaging 2 pounds 80p. Like Kronenbourg, it's a little on the expensive side - but that's to be expected since it's an imported beer as well.

Suresh succintly described the taste of this beer as a representation of what an imported beer usually tastes like - a strong flavour, yet crisp and clean with tonnes of malty aftertaste. What's for sure is that this beer is definitely not as sweet as a Kronenbourg.

This is the kind of beer that would be a perfect accompaniment to a meal, purely because the bitterish flavour of Heineken Pilsener will not be drowned out by that of the food. However, some people may find the bitter taste of this beer a bit of a turn-off factor.

I would strongly recommend that you try this beer while having a steamboat dinner - the strong flavours of the soup will bring out the slightly bitter, malty and uncomplicated flavours of the beer and you'll be surprised at how good this beer tastes!

This beer will also go rather well with salty snacks, although some people may find that this a too strong a "snacking" beer. I personally don't see a problem drinking this beer while eating salted snacks as I quite like the taste of this beer, but like I said before - some might find this beer not quite as refreshing as a drier one.

Summary:
An easy to get yet slightly expensive beer. Tastes more on the bitter side yet clean and crisp with a nice aftertaste. Goes great with food and snacks, although the bitter flavour might not appeal to most people.

Beer Review Part One - Kronenbourg 1664

Yes, you heard me right.

This is a beer review - by Suresh and YC of 46 Spring Hill.

Why?

Well, our reasoning is that someone out there might actually require a reliable source besides Wikipedia to help them find the beer that they'll like.

A complete, no-nonsense and unbiased source of information about beers and ales not seen anywhere else besides Wikipedia.

To be completely honest with you, it's just an excuse for me and Suresh to drink beer.

So, without any further ado, let's get cracking on the serious stuff!

*Disclaimer - All the information provided here is based on personal opinion and may be or may not be accurate. If you have an issue with our opinions, sod off or stuff it up yours. We don't really care what you think about what we think. And, yeah - please drink responsibly. No one really wants to pry a mangled corpse out of a car or to carry a person covered in puke home.*

KRONENBOURG 1664



Without a doubt, the most popular French beer in the UK. Its history and where it's brewed and all that is a little stuffy - so it won't be mentioned here. However, if you really do want to find out more about this beer, an article can be found on Wikipedia.

Kronenbourg costs about a little over 4 quid for a 4-pack of 440mls, which is rather pricey if you care more about quantity than quality. However, if you're into quality, then this beer is for you.

The taste can be described as a beer with a much stronger "body" than a Carlsberg or a Carling. It's not overly malty, though, and has a pleasantly sweet taste. There isn't much of an aftertaste, though, so those of you who like the malty aftertaste of beer might find it a tad bit disappointing.

Suresh thinks that this beer would be suitable as a "dessert" beer, for drinking after meals due to its sweetness. I think that this beer is more suitable when you drink it on its own, without anything else.

I think that this beer would not really be a good accompaniment while eating salty stuff e.g. crisps, chips, salted nuts, because in my opinion dry beers usually taste really good with salty snacks. But to each his own, and I'd suggest you experiment to find what suits it best.

Summary:
A sweet and malty beer, with a great taste but with very little aftertaste. Clean and refreshing, may not go very well with salty snacks. Price may be a turn-off factor, but worth your money nonetheless.

The End Of Phase 1b (Hopefully)

FINALLY.

Phase 1b Finals are finally over.

Paper 1 was absolutely shite - I did it in a daze, not really knowing what the hell I was writing half the time. I'll be a damned lucky sod to pass this paper.

The second paper (practical/spotter thingy) was heaven compared to the first. The history-taking went absolutely flawlessly, with my only concerns in this paper lying in the histology questions.

The last paper went great! I know this sounds like I'm really overconfident, but I have the feeling that I'll at the very least ace it!

So the only fly in the ointment was the first paper. Which isn't too bad, I suppose - but it's a little disappointing considering the amount of work I put in this year. Especially compared to last year.

Sigh.

So damned ironic.

No chance of getting the highest grade this year again even though I did a helluva lot more work this year compared to last year.

Somewhere in the heavens, a God of Irony must be laughing his/her ass off at me.

Anyways, I'm off to get more beer and Malibu. The fog of alcohol enshrouding me seems to have completely dissipated - seems I didn't drink enough at the post-exams piss-up...

6 More Days

6 more days to the MED211 papers.

And after that, assuming I don't fail, I'm going to be a third year medic. Time really flies. It seemed like only not so long ago, I was going huh? every 5 words while reading Kumar and Clark.

Well, not that there's that much difference now anyways, come to think of it.

What's for sure is that I certainly don't feel any closer to being a doctor than when I first arrived here two years ago.

But, yeah - 6 more days.

A New Beginning?

Not really. Just a change in the way I blog. Less elaboration, more straight to the point. And this time, no holds barred.

Why?

No reason, really. It's tiring thinking of what to blog about and what not to blog about. So this time, I'm going to write WHAT I WANT.

It's time to put all that diplomacy behind and actually get honest with my writing for once.

Well, let's see how this will turn out, shall we?