Monday, October 02, 2006

May your life be like a roll of toilet paper: long and useful

The special day that comes along one in a year, I might as well make good use of the chance to blog otherwise this site will really be too covered in cobwebs to salvage any more.

The weekend was a pretty busy one for me as I was involved in the NHG Annual Scientific Conference, having to put up and present a poster (an extension of the CHP hypertension-in-the-polyclinics project we did and which we split up into two parts, with Ek Khoon working on characteristics, control and complications and me working on knowledge and compliance). That ended with a nice bonus as I won best poster for the general practice category. That is not really a big deal because there were only 3 posters running for best poster in each category and one of the candidates didn't bother to present their poster haha, but I still feel quite happy that I won. (It's really weird talking about this, gosh) Maybe this will be the prelude to greater things? Heh but I'm really not the kind that's all too interested in research, though having said that clinical research is certainly a lot more interesting than the laboratory kind.

The ASC was certainly a big eye-opener for me, it being the first time I was attending a scientific conference. I went for a great number of talks, and when I wasn't nodding off (the talks were very interesting, serious, but I just had too little sleep in the preceding week) I learnt quite a lot regarding various topics, from cancer screening to nosocomial infections and CJD. There weren't any gastroenterology-related talks, unfortunately, but I guess GE doesn't make too great a symposium topic given the theme of the conference which was epidemics in the modern age. Saw a lot of other medical students there too, most of whom had their own posters to put up, and a few who were just there to listen to the symposia going on. It was a really fun experience, and I'm going to make it a point to attend the conference next year. After all, it's free for medical students!

I mustn't talk about the ASC without mentioning the marvellous food; I practically overloaded myself on calories (though not in a gross fashion) by having multiple meals and lots of desserts. The venue of the conference was Raffles City Convention Centre (where I think they had some of the IMF-World Bank meetings - I wonder if we have that to thank for the good food haha) and naturally the environment was very grand and posh (I think much better than the SingHealth conference) and the food top-notch, with a delectable variety of pastries at midmorning and at tea between symposia, and lunch with a splendid spread of desserts. I can just salivate thinking about the food, but I shall not indulge myself.

I was certainly very impressed with the scale of the NHG ASC and the excellent organisation which must have gone into making such a large-scale event possible; wonder why SingHealth's conference isn't quite so impressive. In many ways I get the impression that NHG is more high-class than SingHealth in terms of its events organised, but SingHealth is nice in that it has a cozy, warm kind of feel, kind of more close to heart, "heartlander" would probably a suitable comparison to the NHG "cosmopolitan". That's just my feeling, don't quote me on this. But at the end of the day I still like SingHealth leh. Eastern alliances die hard.

Anyway, coming around to talk about my birthday, I really want to thank all my friends for making this day so wonderful for me. I didn't get around to thanking them last year for my 21st birthday and regretted not doing that, so this year I must thank all of them properly.

Firstly, my super CG-mates from CG 11, namely my small CG buddies Wee Ming and Jon Chia, and then Priscilla, Xiuling, Clara, Chi Hsien and David, whom I've spent most of my last year with and who got the really nice Blackforest cake (my favourite! thanks Clara and Pris) for me today. Hope, Darryl, and Raymond, who shared with my CG-mates for the present, thanks, I really loved the present, because I can feel your 心意 and thoughtfulness, seriously, in the choice of gift. A Nalgene water bottle that I had contemplated getting at some time but was just too miserly and content to live with Ice Mountain bottles, and in my favourite purple colour some more haha. And the waist-pouch(es) which I had also contemplated buying in preparation for SIP and housemanship, and perhaps also as a medical student in the wards, since I'm currently carrying a slingbag around to hold my neuro kit. Thanks a lot for the card, and the meaningful and useful presents! (I always think, rather idealistically, that it's not the cost of the gift but the heart and thoughts that go into it, and I really did feel that today)

For the people who wished me a happy birthday, Chin Siang, Shiyong, Linus, Ek Khoon, Shimin, Enli, George and Zhengfei, as well as the people mentioned in the previous paragraph: thanks, your greetings and well wishes have been received and are truly appreciated. ^__^ And of course last but not least to my Daddy, Mummy and younger brother, who got nice presents for me also even though I said I didn't want anything heh.

Another big どうもありがとお　to everybody for making this birthday so special for me, even though 22 isn't really supposed to be all that significant compared to the big 21. I'm really thankful and feel very fortunate to have such wonderful people to share my days with. Ok I shall not get all sentimental and soppy here.


I just have to say this because it amuses me greatly, channel 56 on cable TV is currently broadcasting Bleach (Mandarin-dubbed) every weekday evening at 6.30 p.m., which gives me a chance to continue watching from where I left off in my downloads without downloading heh; it's currently at episode 24. The point I wanted to make is I'm totally bemused by the fact that my mother has become addicted to watching Bleach, which is rather shocking since she tends to be rather bochup when I watch anime, and she's pushed back dinnertime from our usual 6.30 to 7 just so we can all watch Bleach. She apparently finds the anime extremely funny (and I must say it is certainly very entertaining, more so than a lot of other anime) and laughs madly while watching. I still can't really get used to the sight. Haha.

Bleach rocks. But I guess it's rather strange that my favourite character is Ichimaru Gin; I always seem to like the weird ones.

Avaris / 10/02/2006 08:54:00 PM

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