Tuesday, October 30, 2007
ID turned out to be a gastronomical delight
A slightly overdue blogpost; just wanted to wax some lyrical about the ID posting.
In a way I really enjoyed the posting at the SeeDeeSee, not for the learning (I felt I learnt probably five to ten times more stuff at EssGeeH than I did at SeeDeeSee, endless thanks to the wonderful and indomitable Dr A) but for the sheer loveliness of the environment. The sprawling SeeDeeSee compound is simply beautiful, will all the expanses of lush grassy swatches studded by islands of quaint colonial-looking buildings, and the towering old trees that provide blissfully cool shade. Most of the days we spent there, the weather was slightly overcast with nice prevailing winds, and it really felt very good to walk along the roads in the compound, smelling the sharp twang of grass and hearing the rustle of leaves in the wind. Simply fantastic. I keep feeling like I'm going to start running across the grass in exultant nature-loving joy a la The Sound of Music haha (or a la Bollywood movie).
Naturally, with the beautiful environment, the idea of having a picnic within the grounds soon came to our minds. We eventually had it after a few fizzles, like having to clerk cases for tutorial, or having tutorial, or forgetting to bring food, during the optimal time for picnicking. On Friday we had an early tutorial at 8.30 and thus we were able to bring our picnic stuff out to the grounds to have it, finally. So there we were, happily spreading our mats out and arranging our snacks (chips, chocolate chip cookies, dried cranberries, drinks) with cushions, and having lots of fun. It was no more than 5 minutes after we settled on the mat, though, that the nursing sister appeared to ask us what we were doing, to which our reply: "Err, we are having a .. study picnic". No surprises for guessing what happened next, she asked us to desist in our decadent picnicking frolic, for the reason that "We have visitors, and I don't want them taking pictures of you and sending them to STOMP". I didn't think there was anything wrong with picnicking in the grounds, but I couldn't really fault the sister's logic.
Thus it was that great disappointment ensued, our long-anticipated yet ill-fated picnic nipped in its tender formative bud. On hindsight we should have really found some ulu corner of the SeeDeeSee to set up our picnic, instead of choosing a convenient shady spot just behind the wards 71 and 72. We then moved our food to the Multi-purpose Hall, where we attacked it with some amount of resentful vengeance, while simultaneously devouring our notes in studying for the end-of-posting test. For lunch we decided to call in Canadian 2-for-1 pizza, which was actually quite value for money because we got 4 pizzas at and average of 7 dollars per person, not much different from if we had called in McDonalds'. The MPH ended up smelling like pizza, but who cares, lol. At least we managed to have a picnic of sorts indoors, and I will grudgingly admit that it was more conducive studying indoors (there are mosquitoes all around the SeeDeeSee! I got bitten by one in a ward full of dengue patients, but thankfully it wasn't an Aedes mosquito when I smacked and examined it).
The week we spent at SeeDeeSee will be remembered by us as being the week we spent the most on lunch - on Monday we ate at Pepper Lunch, about 9-10 dollars per person; Tuesday was the most affordable day because we ate at Pek Kio, 5 of us trying the big prawn noodles (I loved the soup, it tasted like imitation lobster bisque haha); Wednesday lunch was chicken rice at Wee Nam Kee, which came up to about 7 per person; on Thursday we met our tutor for tutorial at near 12 noon and he decided to go out for a bite, thus we ended up at mingles cafe in Velocity - the food was quite prettily presented (forgot to take photos though argh), and not too bad in quality - cost was about 14 per person; and on Friday, pizza, 7 per person. Not to mention that the Friday of the posting test was the last Friday of the month, so we went to get coffee at Starbucks after the test ended. It was real great fun because it's not all the time you get to eat out and eat (relatively) good stuff with your CG-mates; I think I'll have great memories of the ID posting thanks to all the fun times and great memories we created.
Playhouse was on Saturday; thanks to everyone who came down to support us! I will say that I had fun doing Playhouse, though I definitely had a lot lot more fun last year, because my role last year was so much more fun to work with heh. Oh well. I wish I could have been in the audience and watched all 5 plays, because it is after all our last year in Medicine (and I've always loved watching plays ever since RI days). It's difficult to say which is more enjoyable, acting or watching; I guess each has its own delights, and if I had a choice I'd want to do both at the same time haha. Greedy me.
Surgery EssEyePea at SeeGeeH has started, and so far it feels strangely aimless; I have the impression that I'm floating without an aim towards I'm working to. I expect this is just part of the teething process, and also because the HOs and MOs are going to change in a few days' time; hopefully things will stabilise in a while. The team is really nice though.
Avaris / 10/30/2007 09:33:00 PM
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