Goodbye

Here's a message I got from a friend to end the year of 2008:

A new milestone
A new beginning
A new chapter
A new year
Forget the bad
Cherish the good
I sincerely wish you
A very blessed New Year ahead

Happy New Year 2009

Happy blogging to all and I wish the new year 2009 will bring us prosperity and good health.

Orange

Attended an orange-theme wedding.

What have we done?

Had Tim Sum for brunch today.

Went to a new toilet.

It was so damn crowded, could not even get in. The security guard on duty told us to come again tomorrow.

So this is Christmas

Nice song for everyone.

Merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas.........
and a Happy New Year.

The night before Xmas

It has been raining since last night and it was so-so cold inside and outside the house. But, I guess it was the best time to have steamboat.

We were backed here for steamboat buffet and we really had lots of fun.

Guess who was the first one who sent me Christmas greeting?

It was none other than a drug rep.

Thanks, Evelyn Chan; and also to Desmond who never stopped sending me greeting messages although we were so far apart.

All around the world is Christmas....

Merry Xmas Darling

Greeting cards have all been sent
The Christmas rush is through
But I still have one wish to make
A special one for you
Merry Christmas, darling
We're apart, that's true
But I can dream
And in my dreams
I'm Christmasing with you
Holidays are joyful
There's always something new
But every day's a holiday
When I'm near to you
The lights on my tree
I wish you could see
I wish it every day
The logs on the fire
Fill me with desire
To see you and to say
That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year too
I've just one wish
On this Christmas Eve
I wish I were with you
(Instrumental break)
The lights on my tree
I wish you could see
I wish it every day
The logs on the fire
Fill me with desire
To see you and to say
That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year too
I've just one wish
On this Christmas Eve
I wish I were with you
I wish I were with you
Merry Christmas, darling

Xmas mood

Lunch walk over a newly re-opened shopping mall. The once abandoned complex, is currently 50% occupied. Despite the Christmas mood, the bussiness is still cold.

Parking is still free at the moment and it is a nice place to 'lepak' during lunch hour, not very congested.

Xmas gift

Under the Xmas tree.

A Xmas gift comes through.

Smack

Quiet.

Wet winter

I'm walking in the winter wonderland.

See red

I felt so nauseated today, constantly still thinking about the smell, and the sight of those blood oozing from the body.

It has been years I last worked in the A&E, and it has been quite some time I last see a dead body.

Today, I received a BID (Brought-in-dead) case. There was so much a drama.

Sometimes, it made me feel, life is just like water. Just a small wrong step, one is gone, forever.

It was as painful to feel what other people felt, of loosing someone they loved.

Just that.

Hope no nightmare tonight.

Increment

Piece of good news.

Effective January 2009, specialist allowance will be increased.
UD 47 & 48 get RM500 increment, however, UD41 only gets RM200 more.

Source: JPA

Jhr Road

Some nice Yong Tau Foo with yam rice at the road side next to Padang Brown.

On-call room

The same bed many of us had shared.

The spooky on-call room.

The room is located at the end most of the building and right in front of the mortuary.
Many horror story heard.
I was once nearly 'swallowed' up by the bed and also had one occasion nearly sucked out of the room by a strong force.
Yet, many memories stay.

Hope

Hope for HIV positive patients.

The Star, 4th Dec 2008.

Less than 7.6% or 6,207 patients received HAART treatment.

I am rather surprise.

Six years ago, a young man died of HIV in my hospital. The wife was diagnosed HIV positive as well later after been screened. She lost her factory job and then been shunned by relatives and friends in her village.

One day on follow up, I picked up the phone and refer her to the ID clinic in a tertiary hospital for further management.

The medical officer told me over the phone, " You counsel and treat the patient in your centre first. If she can afford HAART, then only refer to us".

Years have past, we are now glad that first line HAART is available free to all in the government hospitals.

Salute to the ID physicians for all the hard work, who have been seeing and treating these patients without prejudice.

Last day

A blink of eye.
Last day of one year.


I'll be home for Xmas.

Xmas soon

I'm dreaming of the white Xmas.

From Ipoh to KL

The distance is only 20km.

But it took me 2 hours to reach destination.

Night scenes

Although the night life is not as exciting as in other major cities, the night scenes here can be very beautiful.

However, due to a significant crime rates and safety concern it is not advisable to hang out late at night.

Rejoice

What was lost, is found.

Code of @thics

I read with interest that we may soon come out with a code of @thics for bloggers. I am not too sure how such codes could regulate the way people blog but I think it is a set of guidelines to guide a sane person on how one should blog decently.

Here, I read some basic guideline for healthcare bloggers on some common ethics.

Lately, I have been a target of hate mails and comments, I suppose because of something I wrote about d@spensing. I seemed to have attracted some hate fans and particularly one psycho freak out there, not worthy of mentioning, who dedicated a blog just to bash me over the net.

Kind of scary sometimes.

Not only that, Palmdoc was also his target because of the link between my blog posts with MMR.

I guess, this is one of such upsetting encounters one would anticipate when one blogs openly in public.

When I first started blogging some three years ago, my readers were just a few of close blogger friends, but now there are some 20 or more readers whom I do not know, come regularly here.

It is kind of interesting sometimes when we get to interact and share opinions though we do not know each other.

Trying to keep a low profile, fame is not my motive, neither with money making through advertising.

While I always try to keep anonymity and subject confidentiality as possible, but I think one such ethic is very important:

"Courtesy - Bloggers should not engage in personal attacks, nor should they allow their commenters to do so. Debate and discussion of ideas is one of the major purposes of blogging. While the ideas people hold should be criticized and even confronted, the overall purpose is a discussion of ideas, not those who hold ideas." Medbloggercode.com

Despite some minor distraction, I am not discouraged spiritually and I will continue to contribute to this piece of 'rojak', to document the journey of life.

Read more about code of @thics in:
MMR
Cyberjournalist.net

Santa

Santa is coming soon.

Ilex

A young lady presented with exfoliative dermatitis and hepatitis.

The only drug history was, she has been taking health supplement for the past one month.
These so called 'health supplement' was supposed to 'clean her blood' as claimed by the direct sale person.

The patient was required to join membership to enable her to purchase the product.
Could it be the Monascus Purpureus Rice or Ilex Pubescens causing the adverse effects?
'Or could it be due to Habbatus Sauda, Dong Quai, Dang Shen or 'lain-lain herba terpilih"

Read the product company's testimonies using children as young as 6 years old here.

Rasamas

From a personal experience, if one is alone eating out or dining in restaurant, there is a disadvantage, particularly if one is of small built or not so attractive, people tend to deliberately not notice you.

I don't know why I am so upset about having a meal in this Rasamas chicken rice outlet until I wanted to write a complaint to them.

Here is my email to them:

Dear customer service manager in-charge or who ever it may concern,

I would like to voice my dissatisfaction over the service in your Rasamas outlet.

I have gone to the Rasamas outlet in xxxxx xxxxx on 16th November 2008 at 3pm. This is the first time I have heard of your restaurant and I decided to give it a try.

After having seated for 5 minutes or more, waiters and waitresses in red and blue uniforms walked pass me as if I was transparent, until I raised my hand.

I ordered a set G meal that cost RM12.10.

Next, I was served the meal not of my choice. The waiter put down the meal and left hurriedly. While I called on him, I was ignored.

I had to personally carried the meal to the counter to have it changed.

Lastly, as I sensed no staff would walk near my seat, I personally walked to the cashier counter to pay the bill.

I was shocked to find that, on top of paying RM12.10 and RM 0.61 for 5% government tax, I was billed RM1.21 or 10% for service charge!!!

Usually, I don't really bother about such amount of money but I really felt I was unfairly charged for having such a ridiculously poor service from your outlet.

I therefore demand a refund from your company for the 10% service charge, amounting to RM1.21 which I was forced to pay.

Thank you.

Just wonder if they ever reply.

Budget hotels

Being a physician that long, I 've never got the luxury of a fully paid CPD conference or course oversea, like someone else so regularly did.

More so, when one practically 'retired' from being a physician, one would not even see the drug rep's faces anymore.

A poor government doc would have no choice, but to depend on the hospital's sponsorship.

The most pathetic thing about government sponsorship is that, one can only be able to claim hotel accommodation up to maximum RM130 for conference, course, or workshop, and RM 160 for meeting.

With the big cut of allocation for the department this year, the hospital's management has become even more stingy.

Dr@gon Inn Hotel, RM 68.

A friend called me to find out where I was and I told him I was staying in a budget hotel.

Budget hotel to many people means brothel or prostitute dent.

My friend was so surprised that he told me not to let people know that I was staying in such hotel, otherwise my reputation would be hurt.

But I told him, I was not at all ashamed. Being a poor government servant, that was the only option I could afford, compared to the hotel venue where a night stay would cost one RM 250++.

S@n Inn Hotel, RM70.

By the way, not that I am extremely stingy. Somehow, one of the advice told by one of my specialists those days that remained buried in my mind was, she said "Never pay a single cent for courses".

As a government doc, we are entitle to the privilege of getting sponsored CPD course. If the hospital could not even fulfill such allocation, then we shall have the option of getting private sponsorship, which should not be seen as some form of bribery, which some of our bosses don't actually agree.

But heck, anyone care?

Anyway, for those who can't afford the stay at Gr@nd Season or V@stana, here is a quite decent hotel to stay, within walking distance.

RM 97 nett, but for government servant, RM 85.

Nice and cheap.

Faces of BB

That explained the reason I like BB so much.

Steamboat

Woo, woo. Having steamboat at Neurodoc's new house using his newly bought steamboat pot.

Sentosa

Some nice Wan Than Mee in Sentosa.

The only Wan Than Mee that tasted like Wan Than Mee here so far, RM 4.50 (Big).

What drug is this?

A poor old lady has been having chronic joint pain with on and off fever, and had seen 3 GPs for the past one month.

Unfortunately, she developed severe adverse cutaneous drug reaction manifested as Steven-Johnson syndrome.

We had a tough time finding out the real culprit as she had taken so many type of drugs including Paracetamol, Mobic, Arcoxia, Amoxycillin, Piriton, Calcium, Glucosamine, Alendronate as well as Chinese traditional medications.

We managed to call up the GPs to find out the drug name except these green tablets.

She had bought them without a proper labelling and the seller's contact number.

Gimmick

After so much of publicity since last week, it seemed Giant was the first to slashed their prices this week, albeit 30%.

So today I decided to check out some of the items.

Unfortunately, items that are deemed 'essential' to me were not part of the so-called 1200 items with price slash.

For instance, Milo 400gm is still sold at the original price of RM6.99, Nestum instant cereal 500gm RM6.89 and Cintan mushroom instant noodle RM4.49.

My favorite Julie peanut butter crackers although was down to RM8.59 from RM8.99, however, there was a catch.

The original 15-packets packing was also slashed to a 12 packets!!!

What a cheap gimmick.

Anyway, I didn't really find anything cheap worth buying this evening and I wonder whether this was part of the reasons there weren't many shoppers as well.

Meanwhile, I am going to withhold my spending and to check out Tesco tomorrow.

Menacing subspecies

After reading this post from MMR, I felt so disgusted knowing that there is this subspecies called "mentally-challenged parkers" exist.

Here is the original posting to the above pictures.

Deepavali

Xmas deco

Xmas deco up for sale

Christmas soon, in 2 months.