My first lunar new year celebration in Sydney

I love those chinese barbi balls with stuffs (eg, sotong, prawn) in it
Busy street at chinatown
Various chinese deco stalls set up
Game stalls

I bought these taiwanese kueh kueh and egg roll goodies. Damn, I should have buy another 2 boxes. Sure yummy!! Choc with glutinous kueh with thin layer of mashmallow and centralised with green tea kueh. *two thumbs up*

***************************************

I wanna kaopeh. I've got a couple weirdo patients coming through today. Wifey claimed that she has infected toenails for a year and suffering from diabetes. Took a glance of her toenails, there wasn't any reddness or signs of pus. I frowned a little (god dammit) and without another second, she claimed that I looked abit' angry'. I replied that if I were to be angry I would have a better reason to do that. Stating of having infected nails for a year, which she has seen a GP previously without any prescription of antibiotics, doesn't sound right. I explained to her that if she uses the word 'infected/infection', she should understand the signs and symptoms of pain, redness, inflammation, pus. Upon more questioning, I realised that she has poor knowledge of footcare in diabetes. After providing general care and patient education, she continued next if I can check if she needs orthotics. That's pretty simple. And then she went on rambling that when she wears the orthotics, 'the back of the heels look uneven' on her walking shoes. Now that can be referred to the heel counter or the heel of the shoe itself. She can't even demonstrate her explaination well on her sandals (which is a new pair that she wears today). I told her to bring in her shoes next time for proper assessment. Gosh, some patients just refused to let you go uh.

Now over to her hubby's story, he was sure a fiery man. Not because of my treatment, because the clinic doesn't have the facilities to process his payment via Amex. Well, our clinic just don't accept Amex or Diners. I almost wanna wrigging his neck because:

1) he's a REAL difficult person. Each time when I tried to talk to him, he would always say 'can you repeat?" He admitted that he's abit deaf on one side and and other problem is my accent that he can't understand.

I've tried to talk to him in the slowest and clearest tone of voice with good eye contact. No patients have yet to complain of my poor command of English and that shouldn't be the case in the first place at all!

Heh, I decided to test him out.

Me:" you need to get a pair of trainers that have replaceable insoles" (note: I've changed the word from removable to replaceable)

Him:" oh you mean removable insoles?"

See, I would say this is probably the first sentence that I don't find myself repeating to him.

*banging my own chest*

Ozzie day round up!

These are the activities lined up for the public on ozzie day event:

Children's art and craft

Mum's busy buying lolly showbags for the kids.

The pet keeper showing off 'cuddle' the snake -one of the reptiles that can be considered as a pet to keep at home. No smelly poo, low maintainence, just a bit of heat during winter. And of course, lotsa cuddles for the owner too. heh.

Getting Ozzie flag tattoos.

Mr firemen in action- demonstrating the steps on dealing with a bad car accident and rescue work.

Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda!

*******************************************

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie: Oi! Oi! Oi!


Happy Australia Day! Woooo what a feeling of not going to work at the hospital today. Slept till 10yish in the morning and made myself a big breakkie (includes 2 snags -sausages).
Went online to check out the events around the suburb. Packed up a foldable chair and off I went by 4pm.

I took lotsa pics at the Aussie day event but now I am just too tired to upload the pics. Will do so tomorrow then.

*****************************
I was utterly piss with this recreational centre. I would say this would be the only place where I can play basketball. Two weeks ago, I rang and spoke to the person in charge called Darren. Now, Darren asked for my email address and agreed to send me more information in regardless that the basketball season has started last week. Checked on my inbox for 2 days and no email from D. Again, I rang up again stating the fact that I have yet to receive any email from him and he promised he would do it at the end of the day. Few days later, still no mail from D.
I rang up the club and someone said D was not in till tomorrow afternoon.

I decided to perserve with my determination on getting to play bball. I managed to speak to D and commented thatI wasn't getting any email when he promised that he would send. Well, he thought he did send it off but reassured that he will send it one more time again. This time, I've repeated my email address twice to him.

What I can say in general on this so called person in charge is:
Very poor communication skill. Definitely lack of organization. Oh I reckon he should be kick off from the recreational club. Maybe I should find out the exact address of the club and fire a complaint letter for getting poor service matter.

**********************************
I went to Mackers to buy McChicken burger. This Xiao mei mei ( probably about 14 years old) collected my money and she took the order of the next person. While I was waiting, I noticed there was a burger next to the cash box. I was thinking "that should be my burger isn't it? Why isn't she handling it to me?"
So I stared at her for awhile and she just pointed to that burger:" that's yours." and thus, expected me to stretch out my arm and grabbed it.

She needs more training under supervision for sure.Beech!

Today hor......


One old male veteran commented on my pretty skirt at the clinic. WAH, so flattered man. He's already in his 80s and I suppose he still have good eyesight for his age *lol*

Got another 13yo boy came in with ingrown toenail on left big toe. Explained to mom and dad that he needs to have part of his nail removed as it is has penetrated the nail sulcus too deeply which resulted in an infection. Mom's replied:" uh, I think we'll keep it dressed till the next school holiday (April). Then we shall see if he still needs the surgery or not."
I was stunned for a moment. I reinforced the consequences of putting the surgery off (which may lead to chronic infection;it will be too infected for the anasethetic to kick in) and suggested for a prescription of antibiotics, daily Betadine dressing and remake an appointment if any problem presists.
Now I am just keeping my toes crossed so that his toe wouldn't turn gangrene and breaks off like a biscult.
Ya ya, it's gross.

I bought a Supre cobalt blue skirt. Will be nice to wear it to.......I don't where. I don't really get many chances to dress up for occasions in Sydney. I've not even visit any pubs or clubs.Duh.
Anyway, show you my beeeautiful dress:

Also today hor,I sense the urge of going home to celebrate new year!!!!! I don't wanna be stuck in the clinic with da feet!!! Boohoo! I wanna go home eat abalone and steamboat!!!

This is my secondary school friend who sent me this from Singapore:

GONG HEI FATT CHOY EVERYONE!!!!

I sure missing the collection of ang pows....

Brillant Gershwin!

I could have stayed at home all of Saturday. Sydney symphony orchestra organized a concert The Domain (one of Sydney's botanic gardens in the city).What made me to go to that open air concert was firstly, it was free (hurhur!) and secondly, I am bored. So I thought I may want to move that not-so-big ass out of mine out of the house for awhile.

Really I have no idea what kind of symphony music I was heading for. So met up with P and P's friends and some other friends ' friends. Mainly Asians from Malaysia who are pretty much 'aussiefied' since young.
Ahhhh!The whole concert was about playing the pieces by George Gershwin.
http://www.gershwin.com/

He was also the song writer for S'wonderful which was sang beautifully by Diana Krall as well.

Right now, I am off to go for a pong pong! (shower)

Contradicting statements

I was sharing this goss with VN earlier on.

*at work place*

Boss's wifey (BW): " I am thinking of asking my parents to migrate over. It's no good to do nothing after they retire you see. Noo goot for the brains leh."

Me: speechless

I was gonna say but in my heart " But you also not working at all leh. I guess your brains would have been rusty by now."

What a crappy conversation.

Just another thought: How many men preferred their wives to stay at home for good?

Yesterday......

I learnt how to make SUSHI!! So I made some and packed it for lunch for later today.

Here's the outcome:

Arrigaaatoooo!! I made some crabmeat with lettuce sushi and salmon lettuce sushi. Anyone wanna try?

***********************************

Throughout my 3 years of practice, I've noticed lately that I've developed 3 fine/faint lines across the top of my forehead. *panic alarm*

So today I bought my very first anti-aging cream from Loreal to sooth the soon-to-be winkles down. So demoralising ok. Apparently I've used to have a Japanese gf who swears using the Loreal anti-ceasing which contains BOSWELOX. Sigh* not fun getting old which the oldies often say that to me.

On the lighter note, I asked myself how come I develop those lines so quickly. The only thing makes me frown (all the time) is getting vague history taking from patients. Geez, I must tell myself cannot frown too much. Sometimes I can't help it whenever they say thing which doesn't sound 'right' or relevant to their clinical condition.

I must not frown so much!

********************************

On the contrary, I've got a lady patient today who thinks I am too young to be a practitioner.

She said she is old enough to be my mother?? And also added that I am like a schoolgirl???

Wah, but still, i've purchased Loreal for the maintainence of my school girl look then.

I guess I would have made it very well in an old school uniform party.

*Ice ice baby too cold too cold.....all right stop*

(Christchurch, New Zeland)

Because it's a Sunday

My blog is always so boring, so lack of taste, so lame, so be it.
I like it this way.
Blog is just an avenue where I can jot down the moments (in regardless whether they are important or not) of my daily life. Some people feel blogs should be interesting or challenging enough for others to read. But blogging on the internet is still the safest bet for me preventing from mom/dad finding out some of my rather eventful incidents.hurhur. Morever, my parents are not into internet so that would be a bonous. I don't really care how a blog should be written or how I should write to attract certain number of people to frequent the site.It's pretty much up to the individuals on how they want the blog to appear to be like.They are no stringent rule saying that you can't blog about daily living, close encounters and of course, certain issues such as religion or racial cultural sensitivity would have to be taken into context with careful explainations.
In fact, the less people know about my blog, the better it gets. You never know some of your closest friends who read one of those entries can be up for some bitterness for the things that I say. I do change the plot a little sometimes to avoid such potential drama mamas. Having to experience once before, I do not or try not to get into such commotions in relation to my blog.
Beri mar2 fan2 (troublesome) ya know wot i mean??

**********************************
I've learnt to make sushi for myself today *clap clap* and I did a online education on 'conservative control of hyperpronation.'
Podiatrists are seriously most boring/not so online happening people. Can't even find a single blog written by them.Either that they are not interested or they've got better life than me. Boohoo*

(*my favourite place)


Sheng3 Qian2 Da4 Xing2 Dong4 ( Seriously Budgeting)

As I've previously mentioned to VN, we are born into a family motto called " you scratch my back and I have to scratch yours back." In simple terms means when our parents helped us to get this far with our careers by paying an enormous amount of university fees, it is our duty to return the 'favour' to the family eventually. It is incredibly hard when we are working for our own individual bosses earning like 40% of the commission in the private clinics.
In other words, no patients, no pay and vice versa.
On top of that, I have to fork out my own continuing education program held in various interstates (*attending seminars can never be cheap here), family committments +++ (eg, mom's share , dad's share, bro's share), flights to and fro home.....etc...endless

Budgeting is a horrible word but if it's worth to reach my objective on my financial plan, then I need to show more discipline in doing it.

My very own formulated budget plan:

1) Lesser shopping. Once in a month or once every two months. Shop only what I need. THINK properly if I DO need it or not. Always ask yourself :" what would happen if I don't get it?"

2) Bring lunch to work. No cheap cafe at my workplace. Can easily pay up to 10bucks for a sandwich meal. No good.

3) Cheaper activities. DO more running/jogging/walking. Swimming pool entrance cost about AUD$4 per entry. If i go swimming twice a week means it's AUD$32 bucks a month which can cover the cost of my mobile bills nicely.

4) Write down what you have spent. You may be shocked to see how long the list could get.

5) Have a piggy bank. Traditional method never dies.

6) Always do your account at the end of the month. Don't leave it till last minute. Plan your taxes and savings properly.

Opps* I am supposed to create a banner for VN and myself which indicate this " looking for all men with bling and seek for geninue love."
See, then no need to budget for life liao...

( 3 sisters, blue mountains, New South Wales, Australia)

Tender loving care-I need

I went back home right after I've finished my last patient at 1230.
Not feeling well and boss asked why I looked grumpy today. I've been feeling nausea and headache ever since I got off bed this morning. How 'happy' I can look anyway.
Supposed to work in 'dodgy' clinic in the afternoon. Apparently the receptionist took a sick leave too and hence, no one can help me to reschedule those appointments. Finally got hold of the boss and of course, she doesn't sound too happy over the phone.

With the cool rainy weather, I slept soundly from 1-6pm.

Maybe I should.......

While eating my favourite choc swiss cake, I am trying to type out a few possible research that I should attempt on if I'm ever interested...

1) Chinese Medicine/Manipulation( Sinseh as known by most chinese) Vs Podiatry treatment
How the chinese physician know if it is a sprain or strain at the ankle joint? Why do the chinese physician is able 'to put the joint/ligament' back on track within a fast and furious click on a sprained ankle? How is this treatment differ from the pod pr physiotherapy?

2) Ingrown toenail surgery

I've came across this dude who had a wedge resection done on his ingrown toenail by his GP. The end result was having a regrowth of super ultra thick ( or 'onychauxic '= uneven thickening) of his nail that he was actually quite upset about it. Not even a simple nail clipper could take the length done. Obviously, the nail root had been traumatised and once that happened, the nail will not grow 'normally' again.
Wheras the podiatrist would usually carry out this procedure called "partial nail avulsion with phenolisation". This means after removing partof the nail, the pod will add on a chemical called Phenol to kill off the nail root and hence stopping part of the nail from growing. Most GPs (as far as i know) will not use any phenol to kill off the nail root. Additionally, patient's nail will be very much back to square one if the nail root has not been killed at all. When that happens, patients tend to curse and swear at Drs at my clinic for doing such lousy work ;p
My question is: Should GPs leave ingrown toenail surgery to the pods ? If the fact is most Drs are not doing a good job, patients will end up paying more money and thus losing quality of life. How many Drs are able to give the best post op advice?
more queries I've got on my mind but now it's best to leave it later.

Good night earthlings!

What's da smell!?

That's the chao dar (burnt) smell from my pockets. Ever since mom got here, she has done quite a number of mega shopping sprees. Needless to say, I would say 99% of her items are 'complimentary' from me. While waiting for her to select some of the exquisite looking accessories, I decided to try on one of those cheapo big sunnies. So folks, wot dayya think?hurhur.
Oh, there was this lady came up to me at the mall. She asked where I had my hair done. She saidI got very nice looking hair *wahhhhhhhhhhh*-wide grin.


'Ah ah ah ah staying alive staying alive' (Retro shop in Melbourne)
Your grandma's clothes may be lying somewhere around here. hurhur

(<--- Philip Island, Melbourne, Australia)

All the way - Frank Sinatra


When somebody loves you
It’s no good unless he loves you - all the way
Happy to be near you
When you need someone to cheer you - all the way
Taller than the tallest tree is
That’s how it’s got to feel
Deeper than the deep blue see is
That’s how deep it goes - if it’s real
When somebody needs you
It’s no good unless he needs you - all the way
Through the good or lean years
And for all the in between years - come what may
Who know where the road will lead us
Only a fool would say
But if you’ll let me love you
It’s for sure I’m gonna love you - all the way, all the way

*****
This is one of the greatest lurrrve songs that I ever heard. Quite good for karaoke singing also ;p

Mehhh!

Back to work yesterday at the hospital which was abit exhausted. Not exactly a good idea to come back from Melbourne the day before work commencement. This was how my eyes looked like yesterday while I was trying to cut the toenails or writing patients' notes --> -_0

Day 2 of work got much better....as least my eyes are like this--> o_0

Seriously, I would love to invest a house for myself sooner or later. But judging by my fam as me being a gold mine, I don't think I can save up for a decent amount of deposit anytime soon.*sob* Probably, many many years down the road,I will be looking forward of getting a retirement village instead. At least, the facilities of the village will be taken care of and also who knows, there may be cute hunky gardeners for an old mama like me to candy eye.
I wish the month of June will not come so soon as I 'hate' to think that I have to fork out AUD 5k for bro's school fees. *sob sob* I've planned to work extra saturdays for more bling.
Damn those winkles under my eyes. Think it's about time I swap clinque's product to mature brands like lancome. *sigh* After all, who loves an old hag with full of winkles....

Welcome 2006


With the weather today soaring up to the maximum of 44 degrees celsius, I don't think my brain is 'cool' enough to blog properly.

Resolutions?
Very simple: Building up more client loads so that I can have extra bling to do more travel. I am saying this is because that's something which I would forward to acheive.

Travel Plan 2006:

January 06- Melbourne with mom. Shopping and pigging. Not forgetting spending quality time with mom of course.

February 06 - Adelaide.Attending the diabetic foot (chao kar) conference

April 06 - Lord Howe Island
( listed as World Heritage site; only 2 hours flight from Sydney; more like a tropical island with the rule that the island itself cannot exceed more 400 people at any time.)

June 06 - Back to good ole Singapore/Malaysia. Woohoo!! Party, eating,MOS, family bonding, kopi sessions, friends , MRT, and not forgetting the fried char kawy teow with lotsa 'HARMs!!' (the red raw soft slippery clam shaped stuffs)

Rest of 2006,- dunno yet ;p Gotta see how it goes after paying my bro's uni fees. Boohoo!

My first thing listed to buy in 2006 is the book called 'At first sight' by Nicholas Sparks.
2nd book that I wanted to get is a travel biography named "Around the world in 80 dates" by Jennifer Cox.

Geez, I'm such a sucker in lomantik book.