Queensland travel: Great kepple island

If you are looking for beautiful scenic views and not forgetting the sun, sand and sea, Great kepple island is de prefect place for retreat. It is not exactly an expensive place to travel and with AUD $10 , you are able to rent the snorkelling gears to check out some of the most exquisit coral reefs with a variety of different fish species. The kids were still on the Easter break when I was there and yet, I don't feel a tinge of hustle and bustle of people on the island.

We trekked along the coast to the other part of the waters for more snorkelling. See that 2 tiny dots in the pic? We sure over-trekked....

While we were trekking along the coast, we arrived at Oyster bay. I had my first taste of 'LIVE" oyster leh!! Quite salty and I was telling DDU that we should bring a lemon along hurhur* for like oyster platter ;p As you can see the osyters are mounted on the rocks. And you should pick those with the clams closed. It took quite a bit of effort to break the oyster from rock followed by the 'unclamping' process.

DDU brought me to Great Western hotel for some steak. This town has one of the biggest cattle production. In the month of May, the town even has planned for a cattle conference.

I like steak in well done. The portion is just right..........:p~

As I've mentioned about the cattle conference, there will also be a cattle decoration contest going around the town. And this pic has shown one of the 'contestants' dressed up for the competition.

I HAD A GREAT TIME!!

Next destination: Cairns/Lord Howe island (if I tio4 TOTO

From the sunshine Queensland

Finally, I get a chance to enjoy a break from New South Wales and currently enjoying myself soaking up the sunshine in Queenland. DDU and her mate were nice to take me out for an island retreat. We walked kms all over the coast edges full of rocks. The best part was getting a taste of a real oyster fresh from the coast! DDU was sure thoughtful to bring a dagger along on this trip or else I'll never get to see how the oyster was 'opened up' with the fresh flesh in it.For a moment we were so tempted to get a plastic bag and 'da bao'. Oh yes, we still have our Asian kiasu genes in it....how can we ever forget our roots right?
We did snorkelling and its coral reefs are absolutely beautiful. Reminded me of my old scuba days where I'm always heading to Malaysia for weekend dives. sigh* Ever since I came to Oz, I had given up rollerblading (too hilly) and diving. Entrance for a local pool costs $4AUD per entry. See how lucky singaporeans get to enjoy cheap fees for sport activity. I remember Bedok swimming complex only cost like a dollah!!

It wouldn't be too long that I'll be leaving for NSW by Tuesday.*sob sob*
Now I need to remove my whitening trays and continue with my toothbrushing.
more later...;D

Happy Easters!

As usual, no difference from the past previous years, I will also get myself a choc bunny for Easters. This year it's a super fine dark choc bunny from Cadbury. Wooo so cute to eat!
Yesterday I was out on a shopping spree at a factory outlet with a couple of girls from SG.
Before you start to judge me being a spendthrift, I've earned all those blood sweat money from work and extra working hours. So shudd up and enjoy my bargain listings while u can choose eat sour grapes at the same time. *evil laughs*

Bargain listing:
1) Nine West tote bag - $29
2) Portsman top -$14
3) Rip Curl man's shirt -$10 (for my..........................bro la!)
4) Witchery dress and top -$60
5) Roxy shirt-$23
6) Esprit dress-$20
7) Giordano sweater top -$10
8) Mambo yellow bikinis -$10

WOOHOO!Shopping can be such a therapeutic regime.
I am a happy girl! ;D

Long weekend

What a whirlwind of busy week before Good Friday finally has arrived. I was working by all myself in the clinic without the 'supervisor' around. Appointments were full to the brim that I've to start the day much earlier and end it much later (0830-1800hours). NO fun okay!! Just imagine my hands are always holding those instruments/scalpels/writing notes the whole day except during lunch break.
Good to see the income rolling in more than expected and best of all, I've yet to encounter difficult patients this week. In fact, I've got quite a number of interesting people that came through the clinic.

Mrs M has got such gross heel cracks and messed up toenails that I gotta asked her to come twice with a charge on long consultation fee. I simply can't understand how can people don't wear shoes for gardening and rather let the mud getting into those deep cracks.

Mr R is from Queenland and suffers from right heel pain. Since he came to town for a visit, he came to the clinic and hope that I'll fix up his problem. He was saying that the nearest podiatrist is located about 300kms away from where he lives. The treatment plan is to make him a pair of custom made orthotics. Usually the orthotics take about 2 weeks to be make. Since he is leaving in 5 days time, I had to 'push' the lab tech to make it as 'urgent' while in the meantime, I will strap up his foot in rigid tape and perform a biomechanical assessment (joint) all at one go.
*phew* On the last day when he came to pick up his orthotics, he even gave me a brochure which explains the place he is from. He said " you can consider this as your holiday destination the next time." Country fellowmen does have great hearts indeed.

Mr P who is a world war two veteran suffers from ingrown nail. He hope I'll get it treated in two weeks time as he will be marching on Anzac Day.*stress* So I managed to remove the nail spicule, applied Betadine dressing and put him on a course of antibiotics. Old veteran feet hor...must be extra careful one.

I've got gross pics to put up but perhaps I'll do it later.
Otherwise , my life is pretty mundane and I seriously hate long holiday breaks.But on the happier note, I am going shopping tomorrow then.
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I went to see my dermatologist after my last day of work. I'm having an eczema breakout on my arms and legs which could be due to the drug which I'm taking.
I just had a blood test to check for query polycystic ovaries -_-. So I'll be awaiting for the results till next week.
After checking on the information on PCO, I don't think I got the signs and symptoms which described except pimples. Who knows..

Walking down the memory lane

This was a story told by my mom about the life of my grandmother.She was actually adopted from China and 'sold' to a Malaysian
parents. So grandma was the youngest with 2 sisters above her.

In those days, life was hard. For a woman without an education background, she had to wake up in the wee hours of morning to do rubber tapping in the forest. She met and married her first husband ( uh my step- grandfather) with a son. When the Japanese invaded Malaya, my step grandfather and a few other patriotic sons decided to get into the deep forest and planned on the fights against Japs. Days and months went by, my grandma was broken hearted and concluded that her husband was probably killed by the Japs. Years went by, she continued to work effortlessly to raise her son up. She then met her second husband my grandfather) at the rubber plantation and soon got married. My two uncles and mom were born then. It was hard for my first uncle to learn to get along with the rest of family. Perhaps in a child's mind, he was probably feeling that someone has taken his mom away from him.
To my surprise, remarriage was something acceptable in those days. Being an Asian, we are often guarded by our moral values and having traditional mindset like our forefathers do. Who knows some others may have looked down on my grandma or subjected her as a husband curser. I can imagine it must be hard on her.
Right now in her 80s, she is happily living in her kampong house and laughing at every bit of life. Eating whatever she wants even though she is a Type 2 diabetic (which was diagnosed few years ago only). She said she is too old for diet restriction and would rather eat without any regrets.

Shouldn't being too nice ..maybe

I've got a guilty conscious that when I am being 'overly' nice or helpful to someone whom I've just met at work. I do see the point where I really wanna help because she just came all the way from Europe and carrying only max. 20kg of lugguage without any winter clothes. Even though she had briefly told me about her mom is sending some clothings and shoes , I brought two of my jumpers for her the next day. This is where the so-called guilty conscious sets in. I feel that I am being too nice to be true. The last thing on my mind is I hope that she doesn't feel too intimidated by me in anyways.
In other words, I do have a tendency to worry for other people. If the help is within my limit, I will go ahead and do it.

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I'm enjoying every minute in my single comfort zone. I could buy anything at any amount at anytime. This just feels great. But I know that there will come a certain point in my life that this may or gonna be changed.....
I LOVE MY SINGLEHOOD. I need some tough dudes who are capable to tie my feet down coz I can run real fast! Serious!

What has she done ?

I've always advised a lot of my patients never attempt to self- removed corns using corn plasters.

Corn plasters are meant to be applied on the corn itself and not to be applied on surrounding skin. From the picture as you can see the little nucleus , that's where the corn is. To make matters worst, X has applied the plaster on the surrounding 'good' skin as well and thus, creating bigger skin surface area (yellow part) needed to be removed. X still limping in pain after that.

The simplest way of removing the corn is to see your local podiatrist where he/she could remove it with a scalpel within minutes. Usually it's pain free and need not require local anasthetic.

I reckon corn plasters should be banned. People suffering from diabetes are strongly advisable not to self treat as they usually have lack/poor sensation on feet. Plus, the healing rates are much slower than others.

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As I am currently PMS-ing now, I feel like to yak a bit more on the blog. Last Wed, I had a patient who didn't turn up on time and in fact, he turned up half an hour later. His excuse was " sorry i went to the wrong place." How can he went to the wrong place where the name of the clinic was derived from the name of the suburb. Judging from his address, he just lives about 5 minutes away from the clinic location. Out of pity, I squeesed him in for the appoinment later. By the way,he works as a delivery man. How can he mix up with the locations? If I was his boss, he's FIRED!!

Ok back to the story. I am not sure if he needs a hearing aid OR he is mocking at my English OR my accent. For fug sake, I was not born here and don't expect me to speak like one of you. All I requested was to ask him to bring in the xray films in next visit. He simply just stared at me for 5 secs and he went like :" oh u mean FILMS!" What the *uck he expects me to say it. I don't think the word 'films' is a difficult word to say. Next time I'll re-schedule such patient at a later date coz he also made me wasted extra time (eg, like repeating to his questions). My next poor mentally disabled patient had to wait so long to see me and yet he was turning up on time!

No more kindness for patients who turn up late because i'll say *uck off to you.