Shaz - Ina : Love Letters

Home sweet home..

2009-10-31T17:05:00.007Z

Salam..

Oh God, today is the last day of October & I suddenly realised that we haven't post anything this month.. the reason is that were in Malaysia from 6-24th of this month.. it was actually kind-of-a last minute plan.. at first we thought that we're not going back to Malaysia at all this year given that we have other plans made up.. but of course plans changed.. and we bought our tickets last month..

Luckily my dear hubby managed to changed his annual leave.. Alhamdulillah.. (adding another week to October, so we had nearly 3 weeks of holidays.. yeay!!).. we had planned our 3 weeks carefully to make sure that we would spent quality time with our family..

We left Ireland on the 5th October,departing from Cork.. my hubby finished work at 8am that morning and our flight was at 4.30pm on the same day.. (we were desperately want to maximise our time in Malaysia;p)..

Alhamdulillah our journey was uneventful.. we had a few ours of transit in Heathrow.. we were so tired - my dear hubby was up all night working the 12hours shift and I spent the night packing our stuffs and cleaning up the entire house.. it was a big relief when we sat in the MAS airplane.. with the 'Selamat datang' greetings by the flight attendants and raya song played in the flight,my heart was shouting "Malaysia,here I come!!".. how I miss home so much!!

We arrived an hour ahead of our schedule.. and I must say that the pilot was a very good pilot.. for the take off and landing,we didn't feel a thing!.. thanks Mr Pilot! ;)

We definitely had a blast back home!! there are so many things happened.. and I'll keep it short here.. the first weekend we had an open house at my home in Kundang.. and guess who did the cooking? my father!! (owh,i forgot to mention that my mum is still in mecca..).. he prepared the undeniably delicious beef curry to go along with the lemang and beef soup (sup tulang!!) for the bihun soup.. my eldest sister also came home over the weekend.. it was like a very busy nursery,with all of my nieces & nephews fighting with one another,nearly non-stop.. hehe.. but I guess it would be so quiet and gloomy without them!!

2 of my aunts came all the way from Perlis to spend some time with us.. they brought so much food ie pekasam & fresh fishes.. and they've cooked so much dishes (all were yummylicious) plus the traditional kuih as well.. thanks very much mak tam,mak njang & pak tam!! I was planning to bring them for a short getaway at a resort but unfortunately syamil had a fever.. plus the timing wasn't very good.. so we went to a picnic instead.. I can't remember when was the last time I went swimming (or rather bathing) in a river.. the water was ice cold! it was so much fun.. the next day we went for shopping at Nilai 3.. I didn't buy anything but just to accompany my aunts & uncle..

the second weekend, we went back to my hubby's side.. we spent a night in Batu Gajah, one night in Pangkor Island and a night in Taiping.. pangkor beach was really beautiful.. it was clean and the water was clear.. we stayed in coral bay resort.. and that night we had seafood dishes at a ikan bakar stall just outside the hotel.. the next day we left pangkor at noon and headed to taiping.. that night,we went to night safari at zoo taiping.. later on,we had our dinner at Doli kuey tiew goreng.. it was kind of funny of how we tried to find the restaurant.. it used to be a small stall.. but now it has become a fairly big restaurant.. they only serve 6 types of dishes but the restaurant was full!! and when we arrived there, there were on 2 types of dishes left.. wow,they really make a good business!! I was so amazed of how successful they've become.. in the restaurant,the put the pictures of their old small stall.. and now it has become a lovely restaurant..

the next day we went to the Maxwell Hill.. we went up to nearly the top of the hill in a jeep.. the drivers are well trained.. 93 corners with some sharp corners and small steep road.. i was quite afraid of the height- going down was more frightening than going up.. it was more than 1000++m over the sea level.. but the scenery, Subhanallah.. it was breathtaking.. beautiful & calming... love it!!

apart from the weekends, we also had dinner at acik Hisham's house & a BBQ dinner at acik nuar's house.. acik Yan said she hosted the BBQ specially to celebrate us.. thanks very much!! we also hosted an open house in Seremban for the TKCians.. we didn't expect that nearly half of the school would come over for the open house.. but understandable as they're students.. reminds me of my students years in a boarding school - almost always hungry..;p

There's so much more that I wanted to write.. probably at some other time.. will try my best to update my blog regularly.. insyaAllah we'll meet again in the next post..:)

Eid 2009

2009-09-29T15:08:00.005+01:00

Salam..

As you may all aware at this stage, I have not blogged a word for quite some time.. Nevertheless, my lovely wife has been keeping this page rather active and alive over the course of my silence.. Enough said on our first ever open house, it was a memorable moment.. To my wife, Ina, I am really sorry I was no more of a help.. The only think I did was literally cleaned up the front (including vacuuming and mopping the floor) and did the trash.. I'll try to do better next time, when we plan another open house or similar gathering at our place..

Eid 2009 - What's Different

To be perfectly honest, I enjoyed so much of this Eid.. The reason was as simple as I had missed THREE Eids prior to this one.. In fact, I actually thought that I missed only two.. Not that one was not significant to remember, but all three were missed because I was working..

Eid Al-Adha 1429 - I woke up that morning in the smelly and stenchy hard bed of the Res.. Washed myself and bought a cup of coffee to-go and on with the post-call ward round.. When every Malaysian women in the hospital wore bright-coloured baju kurung and the men had looked fresh and smiley, I had to spend the day in my, possibly, MRSA-stained scrubs, until I got home that evening.. Of course, I missed the Eid prayer that morning..

Eid Al-Fitr 1429 - Waking up that morning was definitely different.. It was the the first day of October.. I had just finished my rotation in Palliative Care and was then back based in the Regional.. HR had called me and asked me to be on-call on that day.. Despite strongly declining and refusing, their argument was that I would be the only one in the rota for that consultant on-call to know the run of the hospital.. Two new colleagues came from Cork and had never worked here.. So, the best option was to have one 'oldie' to show the ropes to the 'newbie'.. It also meant that my own new team was expecting me to turn up at 9 o'clock that morning..

Eid Al-Adha 1428 - Honestly, I could not remember anything from this day.. Was I to preoccupied with work that I missed this one too?

This Eid

I had calculated the days and found out that I would be working that weekend of Eid.. And it was not as if I could turn up late for work as I had to relief the guy who worked the long-hour night shift.. It would not have been fair for him for me to ask him to stay for another couple of hours just so I could go for the prayers..

Alhamdulillah, Allah blessed me with an opportunity and I managed to break a deal with a colleague - I would do his 8-hour shift on Friday (when I was supposed to be off) and he would cover me on that Sunday for eight hours and I would come in to finish the last four hours of my original shift.. That turned out very well, despite me oversleeping and only left home for work just after 4 o'clock!

* * * * *

The morning breeze was cool enough to chill the so-thought semi-brittle bones of mine.. But the warmth from the bright ray, just peeking from behind the cotton-thin cloud was just about sufficient to counteract the coolness felt on skin.. The day was bright, the weather was perfect, the day was Eid again.. A small drop of tear pooled at the corner of my eye on the very morning takbir was humming inside of me, praising Allah for the opportunity to meet Ramadhan again, and meet Syawal again..

It was a perfect morning..

Though.. Deep inside of me, maybe I had dreamed of something better.. What could be better? Allah only provides the best for His servants, and what we deem better for us may not what He deem best for us.. And He is the All-Knowing..

I had hoped to celebrate and welcome Eid with my children with me.. But they are not with me today.. They are in Jannah, celebrating Eid.. I was here with my forever beloved wife, my soul companion, making the most of Eid here on earth.. Her love for me is undoubtedly the fulfillment and definition of love itself..

Maybe next year, maybe next time, insya-Allah..

O Allah, give us the strength to face the coming days together.. And maybe one day I will have my family with me on the morning when we would all gather and welcome Syawal.. As for now, this is the best for me and for us as seen by Allah, not as seen by me.. Ameen..

Salam..

Our first official open house for Aidilfitri..

2009-09-27T23:21:00.007+01:00

Salam..

Alhamdulillah, we managed to host an open house yesterday (26/9/09).. it was actually a last minute plan.. as I've written in the previous post, we celebrated 1st day of Eid at Ustaz Wan's house only.. I wanted to have the feel of Eid, like I used to feel during my student years.. went from to house to house.. meeting old friends and making some new friends.. so I suggested to my hubby, why don't we host an open house and invite all our friends?.. but somehow I got the impression that he wasn't too keen on my idea (maybe I was wrong).. but probably because we only have Saturday free and he was going to finish work at Friday midnight.. probably he was worried that I would be left alone to prepare all the food..

So I discussed again with my dear hubby and he agreed on my plan.. and on Thursday, I began to send invitations to my dear friends.. I realised it would be on me alone to prepare all the dishes so I decided to cook something simple with less work needed to be done.. so on Friday morning, we went out to buy the groceries.. we went to Harun's shop to get the meat.. when I walked into his shop, the first thing that he told me was that somebody broke into his shop the night before.. poor him.. he lost all his sales from the day before & all of the calling cards that he left in his shop.. when I got there, the police haven't even come yet.. hopefully they will be able to catch the culprit..

So that evening, I started to cook.. I started early coz I knew that I needed quite some time to finish my cookings.. firstly, because I was cooking alone and secondly, I was trying out new recipes.. I started off with baking the cheesecake and making the rendang.. and the list went on.. when my dear hubby came back from work at 1 am, I was still cooking.. the next morning, I had everything on my table - pulut kuning, rendang, mee, kuah bandung, sup tulang, baked macaroni & cheese and cheesecake.. plus my raya cookies... Alhamdulillah, I managed to cook the main dishes in time.. my dear hubby woke up early that morning to clean up the house.. thanks abang!;)

When I first sent out the invitations (through text and facebook), not many people could come.. but on the day itself, many of our friends turned up at our open house.. it was a bless!! some of them I haven't seen for months and many of them came over to our (rented) house for the 1st time.. Alhamdulillah, it was a great day.. I would to thank all of them who came over to our open house (especially those who came a long way from waterford, galway, ballinasloe, cork & nenagh) - abg zali ( k.kin) & family, khaironi (k.azah) & family, asyik ( k.lin) & family, hafis (azraa) & family, fitri (k.yulia) & family, syieza, zai & husband (rifqee) , syakira & husband (fendi), ustaz wan & k riza, fairus & asma', jamilah & the gang, kay reen, fadzrul.. thank you very much!! it was our first official Aidifitri open house.. we didn't get the chance to do it before as we were busy working and we were in Malaysia for our first Eid together:) after all the guests left, we went over to Ustaz Wan's house (for 2nd time this Eid) as abg amin & family were there.. it was quite late & they couldn't come over to our house, so we went over to meet them instead.. we haven't seen them for over 2 years as they were in UK.. we got to meet so many friends in a day! yeay!! Alhamdulillah..

Today, we extended our 'eating activities' to abg zali & k.kin's house.. they hosted a birthday party (Huda is 7 years old now!) plus Eid open house.. we met new friends there.. now I know, Limerick is not that bad after all.. there are quite a number of Malaysians here.. it just that we don't get the chance to meet each other that much.. hopefully there'll be more gatherings to come, insyaAllah:) after the birthday party, saadah & the gang from Cork came over to our house.. we had a few hours of chit chatting & a quick evening tea before they went back to Cork..:) thank you to them as well for coming over to our house.. I am blessed with bliss of friendship!!

I better stop now.. need to get a good rest tonight.. I haven't clean up my house yet;p will do that tomorrow insyaAllah.. till we meet again in the next post..

Eid Mubarak 1430H!:)

2009-09-22T23:23:00.009+01:00

Salam..

Ramadhan has gone and now we're in the 3rd day of Syawal.. All praise to Allah who has blessed us with the holy month of Ramadhan.. I pray may we be given the chance to meet Ramadhan again..

We spent this Eid in Limerick.. my dear hubby had to go to work for 4 hours on Eid day, hence the decision to stay in Limerick.. as there were only a few Malaysian families left here (and many of them have plans on Eid), we had a potluck session in Ustaz Wan's (& K.Riza's) house.. so there were me and my dear hubby, Ustaz & K riza, Mas & K Aini.. and later that day, Fadzrul joined as well (after we left K riza's house)..

I cooked a few dishes - the usual dishes - soto, nasi impit, rendang & pulut kuning.. I also made a choc cake & few raya cookies - makmur, suji badam, almond slices & tart.. all of these dishes were my 1st try except for nasi impit & makmur.. God, I barely could stand on my feet on Eid morning after spending the last evening of Ramadhan in my kitchen.. now I know, cooking can actually be exhausting.. I don't know how did my mum able to cook ( in large quantity) by herself.. usually for raya, she would made ketupat daun palas, rendang, kuah kacang, and the main menu would be different from day 1 to day 7... I remembered when we were living in Kepong, mum's laksa was very famous as that was the main menu for the 1st or 2nd day of Eid every year (without failed!).. Arwah Uncle Safari (a family friend & my school van driver) was amongst the 1st to come over to my house.. he was one of the biggest fan of my mum's laksa.. He would make sure that he came over to my house on the right day;) I can't deny it was yummylicious! not only the gravy, but the laksa itself, she made it from scratch!! I would sat beside her, watching her making the laksa.. she used a special mould for that, and I liked seeing the laksa falling down nicely.. it was like playing with play dough;p hehe.. for me, cooking laksa is quite a hassle.. making the gravy is another long process.. we need to boil the fish first, then separate the bones before blending them.. sometimes they ended up in my mouth first;D hehe.. but the end result, is worth it! I guess most people would say mum's cooking is the best!! same goes to me.. mak is very good at cooking.. even until now, everytime I go back home, she will make sure that I get to eat my favourite dishes..

Usually for the open house, while my mum would be busy in the kitchen, abah would be busy tidying up the house.. making spaces for the guests, and taking out the serving plates & casseroles.. that was his specialty! and on the Eid night, he would be busy following the group reciting the takbir from house to house.. I miss to hear abah reciting the takbir & I miss to perform the Eid prayer with my family.. made me more homesick!!

Writing about Eid, I can't stop myself from reminiscing about the unforgettable memories of Eid.. there was one time when I spent my Eid with scars all over my face ( my forehead, my chin & some on my nose!).. due to my 'stunts' riding a bicycle without a brake! hehe.. I didn't realise that the bicycle actually didn't have a brake (or probably it wasn't working), not until I was riding it down a hill.. I was so terrified cause I was riding it in the middle of the road (which was quite a big & busy road).. and I have no idea at all how to stop the bicycle.. and I ended up hitting a tree (I would called it a 'head on' collision except that trees do not have head;p).. You can laugh about it but it was actually a horrible accident.. sore, a little dizzy and scared, I went home walking.. I didn't even remember crying probably because I was scared to death! when I reached home, my plan was to hide myself (haha.. of course it was truly a failed plan).. abah noticed I sneaked in slowly and ran upstairs, and of course he could sense something was wrong.. ;p so abah was the first to know about my accident.. it happened during Ramadhan and that Eid, I had a few extra 'features' on my face ;D hehe.. my mum was worried about the scars on my face, but Alhamdulillah as I grew up, they disappeared.. but if I touch my chin, I can still feel a small scar.. the scar that reminds me of how 'adventurous' (ie naughty) I was!

Another incident that happened around Eid was an injury to my big toe.. that Eid, my mum cooked satay-styled chicken (ayam masak sate).. and I was the only one who really like it.. there were lots of leftovers of that chicken.. so after the guests went home, as usual mak & abah cleaned up the table & kept the leftovers in the fridge.. then we all went for a quick evening nap.. but I woke up earlier than the others and I was hungry for that chicken.. I knew that my mum kept them in the fridge, in a beautiful casserole ( a white casserole with some small flowers decorations - I can still remember it!).. I didn't want to wake my parents up and I thought I would manage to get them myself.. so I went down to the kitchen, opened the fridge and pulled out the casserole.. and suddenly.... pranggggg!!! the casserole fell onto the floor (actually onto my foot!!).. Oh God.. I didn't expect the casserole to be so heavy that it could slipped away from my hand.. my good intention of not waking up my parents obviously didn't turned out well.. my parents was shocked by the noise and they rushed down to find me standing in front of an opened fridge with pieces of chicken and shattered casserole at my feet.. haha.. but of course their reaction was more on concern rather than anything else.. and of course i wasn't scolded as I was hungry and was just trying to feed myself! pity me.. not only I didn't get the chicken, I hurt my big toe! I had quite a big cut just underneath the toenail.. it was so sore.. and the next morning, it got swollen and I could hardly walk properly.. so for the next week or so, everyday abah would put the gamat oil and massage my toe, to reduce the swelling until I managed to walk properly again.. both of these incidents happened when I was in primary school..

Hmm.. what a nuisance I was;p hehe.. but my parents have been so patient with me.. that is what we called parent's love.. A love that is given whole-heartedly, not asking for it to be returned.. and all I can do is to try my best to keep them happy, in every way that I can, so that they're not worried about me or my siblings too much anymore.. it's time for them to rest and enjoy their time.. they have done so much and I know anything that I do is not even close to what they have done for me since I was born (or even before I was born!).. but all I can do is to try my very best.. I pray may Allah bless them always.. and I pray may I be a good daughter to them..

All in all, this Eid has been a moderate celebration for us.. we spent the Eid day at one house only and we spent the rest of the Eid day on the phone, calling our families in Malaysia and my mum in Macca.. and on Monday, we all went back to our usual routines.. maybe this weekend, we'll host an open house.. to all of you, I wish Eid Mubarak.. Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.. Maaf zahir & batin.. may the spirit of Ramadhan stays alive.. may we meet again in the next post, InsyaAllah..

A special thanks to mama (my mother-in-law) for the beautiful baju raya.. you really made my day!:)

Blogging..

2009-09-05T22:28:00.014+01:00

Salam..

Today we broke our fast in the hospital as my dear hubby is working over this weekend.. I cooked chicken padprik with fried potatoes & egg and brought them over to the hospital.. it was actually a nice feeling going to the hospital neither as a doctor nor as a patient;p hehe..

There were 3 of us breaking fast together - me, my hubby and a colleague/friend.. we were having small conversations and we came to a short discussion about blog & blogging.. he asked us why do we write blog.. and I actually have a very long answer for him.. now my friend (you know who you're and I know you're reading this;)), I'm going to give you the reasons why I started blogging..

I don't remember exactly when I was 1st introduced to blogs but I do remember a few years back, when I was a medical student, I had a roommate who loves writing and owns a blog.. I probably knew about blogs way before that but she sparked my interest on reading blogs.. In her blogs, she put quite a number of links and somehow I ended up reading a blog written by a senior of mine from high school.. but sadly enough she passed away at a very young age in a car accident, leaving behind a son who was just a few months old at that time.. I was shocked by the news and I felt so sad and so sorry for her husband and her son.. Allah loves her more.. she passed away not long before I found her blog and her husband continued to write in her blog.. he wrote about their memories together and how he missed her dearly.. reading her blog from the start, she has documented her journey well.. and I know that someday, when her son grows up and learn to read, he will be able to know his mother through her writings... he will be able to read his mother's wishes for him.. he will know how much she loved him and how much she was loved and missed by her husband, families and friends.. and that's the beauty of writing..

We started this blog a year after we got married.. and my very 1st intention of writing this blog was no other than to write to myself.. I figured out that with documenting our journey together, I hope to live in the memories and to cherish the important moments in my life.. now and again I read my previous posts.. some of which I didn't even remember writing them! and I love reading my hubby's posts especially if it involves me in it;) hehe.. reading what he wrote about me makes me realise that he did notice the small things.. and the small things make things big! I would say reading them makes me fall in love all over again;) so I guess I can say it's a good therapy for married couples (at least it's true for me!)..;)

Another reason why I started to write is to express myself.. I can surely say that I'm not very good at expressing myself.. I like to keep things to myself.. and I think that a healthy way to deal with it is through writing.. it's not really in our culture to say 'I love you' to our parents everytime before we hang up the phone, or to our friends before we bid goodbye.. or to our spouse before we go to bed every night.. but we know that we love them and they love us too but we just don't say it.. why? I have no idea.. when I was little, my mum like to ask me, 'do you love mak (mum) or abah (dad)?' and my answer would always be 'I love mak & abah'.. and somehow as I grow up, the words are no longer mentioned.. I know action speaks louder than words but what harm can it do if we also say the words? So I guess my to go around it is to write.. I love all of you!!

So my friend, I hope you can find some answers in this post of why we started and continue to write in this blog.. as you can see, I didn't put any links or list of followers in this blog (although my dear hubby kept asking for it;p) and the reason is the same reason that I've mentioned earlier - I initially wrote this blog to myself.. but I'm more than happy to share my thoughts and my stories with all of you and as time goes by, we've put in a few posts dedicated to our readers.. I welcome all of you (with all my heart) to read this blog & to leave any comments.. and I'm honoured that I do have some readers:) thank you very much.. do visit this blog as you wish:) till we meet again in another post, insyaAllah..

The memories of Ramadhan..

2009-08-31T16:22:00.005+01:00

Salam..

Alhamdulillah.. all the praise to Allah who has given you & me the chance to meet Ramadhan again..

This Ramadhan feels different to me.. maybe because I feel that I have more time in my hand.. more time that I hope I will spend to improve myself..

Ramadhan brings a lot of memories.. since my childhood until now.. Alhamdulillah, Allah has given me the greatest chances of spending Ramadhan in different environments & with different sets of people..

I don't remember at what age I started to fast properly.. I started fasting for a few hours a day, initially, just to practise.. all that I can remember is that I was so weak on the day that I managed to complete my 1st proper fasting.. towards that late evening, I just laid down, having no energy to do anything else.. and my mum asked me a few times whether or not I want to break my fast early.. but my determination was above all.. but there were also days that I sneaked up on the munchies & pretend that I was fasting.. hehe.. they're all memories that makes me smile.. how cheeky I was!!

Getting up for sahur was another story.. Usually my dad would wake us up.. abah had different ways to wake us up.. he would 'sing', he would tickle and he won't stop talking until we were up.. hehe.. and after finish eating, while waiting for the azan, he would teach me the niat.. everyday until I was able to mesmerise it myself.. I think I was 5 or 6 years old at that stage.. but of course, by the next Ramadhan, he had to teach me again;)

How time flies.. now I'm all grown up & married.. and seeing the pictures of my parents, I realised that age have taken its toll on them.. how I miss them! all the childhood memories of my Ramadhan will be remembered.. this Ramadhan, we celebrate it in different parts of the world.. I'm here in Ireland with my husband, my mum is now in Mecca until after Eid, while abah & the rest of us are in Malaysia.. that doesn't make this Ramadhan less special than the usual.. thanks to the technology.. they're all a phone call away.. but of course, I miss spending Ramadhan as a whole big family, together.. hopefully someday.. insyaAllah..

How is my Ramadhan so far? Alhamdulillah, everything is going good.. and hopefully it will stay good,if not better, until the end.. I guess I better stop now.. need to prepare for breaking fast..;)

Third Ramadhan..

2009-08-24T15:49:00.004+01:00

Salam..

Since my last entry about the Riverdance, which was quite a week ago, nothing much has happened.. Yet, it would be ignorant for me to say that I did not intend to write about Ramadhan which has come to greet us again this year..

This Ramadhan marks my third Ramadhan since I became a husband.. We have gone through so much since the first one, back when we were up in Letterkenny - me not working and Ina was doing her first doctor job.. The cold and misty mornings and wintery wind of North were things I could remember from that Ramadhan.. Not that I have no other recollections, but I would rather keep those to myself.. In this entry, I would just merely share the commons.. We had our Eid prayer in Dublin (even though the Eid prayer in Letterkenny was one day early!) and flew home to Malaysia the same day..

My second Ramadhan was already in Limerick.. That was a tough one for me, not because of the longer fasting hours compared to the last one, but I could remember clearly that it started on the first day of September and ended on the first day of October.. The matter that Eid was on October 1st meant that I was oncall and had to spend the day in the Emergency Department admitting patients, not even having the chance to go for Eid prayer that morning.. I spent most of the fasting month when I was working in Milford, which was not a busy job.. I had the chance to write and distribute an article I wrote about Ramadhan to my colleagues in the centre.. It was a blessing and, indeed, was a da'wah opportunity for me as a Muslim.. 1429 was also the Hijri year that I was post-call on 10th of Zulhijjah, on Eid al-Adha.. I missed both Eid prayers that year..

Starting on the 21st of August this year, Ina and I welcome the third Ramadhan together.. Sadly, it is still just the two of us.. This year, maybe I will have the opportunity to greet and celebrate Eid with my wife.. Insya-Allah, God's willing, Eid will fall on Saturday or Sunday - both days of which I will not be working.. Ina is also not working.. Maybe I will take some time off later in October to go back home and celebrate the remaining of Syawal with our families..

O God, whiten my face with your light
On the day You would whiten the faces of those dear to You
And do not blacken my face with darkness
On the day you would blacken the face of Your foes

Salam..

Riverdance - Irish At Its Best

2009-08-18T21:18:00.005+01:00

Salam..

As promised, I will share my experience having witnessed the great Irish Riverdance in Gaiety Theatre in Dublin last night.. As far as honest is concerned, I had wished to see the show since I first saw and heard of them, and that was quite a few years ago.. In fact, I realised that I like different culture that I would take every opportunity to experience and watch them.. I suppose that statement would now be apparent and evident throughout our travelogues.. Well, here is for sharing..

Riverdance

Where the river foams and surges to the sea
Silver figures rise to find me
Wise and as daring
Following the heart's cry

Feel the magic and power of surrender to life
Uisce beatha
I am living to nourish you, cherish you
I am pulsing the blood in your veins

The show started at 8 o'clock but we were already in there by 7.30pm.. The fact that the hotel we were staying in was so close to the Gaiety Theatre, it was no rush to get to the venue..

The show consisted of two parts, with a fifteen-minute interval in between.. It started off with a very gentle instrumental music and then with a more upbeat dance.. Throughout the show, a mixture of great dances of soft and hard shoes, awesome instrument displays and even magnificent vocals.. I have to say, I enjoyed the hard-shoe dance better than the soft ones.. Maybe because the echo of the strum of steps made by the dancers excites me more - such precision and punctuality..

In between the shows, we refreshed ourselves with some cold drinks and ice-cream, a little bit sugar for the next half..

At the end of the show, the crowd stood up for a standing ovation and, in all fairness, had hoped that it was not the end of the performance.. Overall, I thought it was a magnificent show.. However, I was a bit 'disappointed' by the length of the show (hoping for more, obviously) and quite a small theatre.. Maybe because I had watched Michael Flatley performing in larger centres and had hoped that the Gaiety Theatre would equal them.. But, other than that, it was worth every penny!

Maybe someday I will invest more and watch the troupe perform somewhere else.. Maybe even see Mr Flatley in action..

I loved it!

Salam..

Birmingham : The Leisure Vacation

2009-08-16T12:38:00.008+01:00

Salam..

Clearly for most of you, this blog page has been, for most of the time, very very quiet.. To the point that even myself started to wonder whether it was actually worthwhile having a blog but not updating it on a fairly regular basis.. Of course, being busy is almost always the party line for any excuses.. Well, I am indeed terribly sorry.. I may well vow to update this blog on a more regular basis than the occasional 'sorry' introductory lines, but I will not, because it seems that it would probably be a false promise anyway.. Either way, I can only promise to do my best..

Anyway, the last week was fantastic.. Of course, it was the complementary week off after the week of nights.. The seven-day midnight-to-morning shift was drenching.. It was exhausting.. But enough on that.. After the shift ended, that same morning I got home and took a couple of hours of nap, then got ready for the trip.. Ina had booked our flight around 5pm that evening, so I did not have much time to rest.. Plus, let's be honest, after that week of nights, I was a Batman - waking at night and sleeping during the day.. In fact, 5pm was just around my bedtime!

Day 1 : Cadbury World

We did not plan to go to this chocolate factory until the day we flew to Birmingham.. Not that we did not want to go, but we were unsure when to go.. We took the train from Birmingham New Street to Bourneville, which was about 15 minutes away.. Even the train station at Bourneville was coloured purple.. As a matter of fact, Bourneville is the hometown of Cadbury chocolate.. The trip included shows of the origin and travels of chocolate, free chocolate sampling in the factory and fun with chocolate! Honestly, I avoided playing with the dairy-milk chocolate 'liquor' since I did not want to risk my T-shirt stained!

Day 2 : Drayton Manor Theme Park

For some reason, both myself and Ina have become a big fan of theme parks.. As a matter of fact, I don't even remember a fan of theme parks until just under three years ago.. Of course, I have been to many theme parks before we got married, but I don't think Ina had been to one before we hooked up.. I can still remember the first time I brought her to a mini theme park in Salthill, Galway.. She was scared as a cat in a tin can the first time she was in a ferry's wheel.. But, believe me, it was the trigger of her thirst for theme parks!

Drayton Manor was somewhat a consolation as the original plan was to travel by train to Alton Towers.. But the journey was a little bit to far and ('luckily') the weather was not permitting either.. In fact, even in Drayton Manor, the weather was in the category of 'horrible'! It rained all day that we had to buy a raincoat.. Maybe, the weather was the factor that deterred us from taking all those crazy rides.. We only rode some of the coasters, but avoided most of them..

Drenched in rain, only the cheap plastic raincoat as cover

Either way, it was a wet day but a fun one..

Day 3 : Warwick Castle

It was undoubtedly a better day.. The sun was out, the breeze was soft and the clouds were invisible! We took the train to Warwick and gambled our way to the castle, which was about 10 minutes walk from the train station..

We were greeted by Jolly Jester, the Princess and a knight (in shining armour!).. Paid the ticket and off we went to the castle.. There was a lot of scheduled performances that we did not want to miss and inevitable resulted us entering the Warwick Dungeon later in the day.. My personal favourite was the trebuchet and 'fireball' trebuchet shows.. We also climbed the 255-step towers and witnessed Ina breathless like her lungs had collapsed! That was a scene!

Archery class for 5pounds!

Day 4 : SeaLife & Walking with Dinosaurs

By this day, my sleep cycle has already come to terms with normality.. We headed towards the NIA on foot.. It looked quite far in the map, but was only about 20 minutes leisure walk from our Radisson SAS Hotel.. Ahh, the weather was gloomy but we were indoors.. No bother.. The SeaLife building was next to the theatre where we would be for the dinosaur show..

SeaLife is just another name for aquarium, as far as I was concerned.. Not that it wasn't fun, but at this stage it has all become the same to me.. Later in the afternoon, we walked to the NIA again and watched the ultimate show of our vacation - Walking with Dinosaurs.. The show had only one word to describe it - extravagant! Our seats were on the second row from the front and the view was great.. We had so much fun that the five days there were just a matter of flying time..

SeaLife Birmingham

T-rex in action

Riverdance

We arrived in Limerick around one o'clock on Saturday.. We have about two days to sort ourselves out - rest and wash all clothes.. We will be traveling to Dublin on Monday to watch Riverdance in Gaiety Theatre.. I have always wanted to see this performance but only now I have the chance..

I will let you know the details after I come back..

Salam..

Learning The Hard Way

2009-08-03T20:23:00.002+01:00

Salam..

Indeed, it has been quite some long time since my last entry.. As a matter of fact, my last entry was from our day-2 journey in Paris.. Even that is still not finished yet.. I still have another four days to complete that series.. Oh, dear! I am very lazy, am I not?

New Phase Of Learning

I am pleased to tell you that since the start of July, I am no longer the in-house officer for medicine, but now working in the Emergency Department (ED, or A&E).. To be honest, I was terrified at the start, and in fact still am.. The thought of seeing a patient face on with pretty much nothing but their words was a horrifying one.. But, I was eager to take the step.. In fact, I had once said to a colleague that I would want to spend some time in ED to know the feeling of not knowing and making the best guess for what was happening..

My wish came through.. I am now posted to be an ED officer for the next six months..

I knew it would be hard, but I was (half-) ready to make the leap, run the course.. Alhamdulillah, as of now, I have made it through the first month.. The learning curve for this job is magnificent - from the straight forward unstable angina and pneumonia to the 'I'm not sure what's going on' stuff and multiple-problem cases.. And also, I am learning loads about the surgical stuff that I would never thought of doing as a medical SHO - suturing, dislocations and fractures..

As the days go, I become more confident with my decisions and making judgment calls - stabilising patients before I refer them to the appropriate services or sending them home if I feel they would be safe to be discharged.. To my own benefit, I made a presentation on one of the teaching days pointing out the difficulties I faced to make the appropriate referral.. My boss was present and, in fact, he thought it was a good! I was pleased with myself but also feel relieved that my SHO colleagues were also facing the same and similar challenges..

As of today, I have done few suturings, staplings, reducing dislocations and casts.. I am proud of myself, but also realise that there is still much to be learned.. I don't want to rush myself, so I am taking cases as they come to me.. Hopefully, I will be alright..

I am starting my night duty shift tonight and, to be truthfully honest, I am terrified! There will be only one SHO (me!) from 2am to 8am tomorrow.. I am up to my 90's at this moment and really freaking out.. I hope it would be okay..

Salam..

Cream cheese butter cake..

2009-07-29T15:57:00.008+01:00

Salam..

A few of my friends have been asking the recipes of the cakes.. and I'm more than glad to share them with all of you:) the biggest problem is I'm not a good keeper of my recipes.. hehe.. Sometimes I copied them down, sometimes I printed them out.. and to make things worse, I have about 4 chiffon recipes, a few choc cakes recipe and I couldn't make up which one has the best outcome! I need to have a better way to keep my recipe.. posting them here is a good idea..

As I'm still trying to find the recipes, I will post the ones that I've found.. so, this will be the first recipe.. cream cheese butter cake..

The first recipe that I came across can be found in this link Naz Rinn Chan. Then I came across another very similar recipe (which I'll post in this entry) but I couldn't remember the source of this recipe.. credits to both..:)
the 2nd recipe was really similar to the first one except for the ingredients.. the steps are exactly the same..

here is the 2nd recipe..

200gm butter
200gm cream cheese
250gm castor sugar
5 egg yolks
5 egg whites
250gm multipurpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (sift together with the multipurpose flour)
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1. Mix butter & cream cheese until smooth & creamy
2. Add in sugar gradually
3. Add in egg yolk,one by one.
4. Add in the flour. Slow down the mixer speed, add in vanilla essence.
5. In a different bowl, beat the egg whites until it gets bubbly. Add in cream of tartar.
6. When it has reached its peak, take 1/3 of it and add into the mixture of cheese/butter. Fold in gently. Repeat again until finish.
7. Pour into a buttered and lined cake pan. Bake in a preheated oven 170 degree C for about an hour.

*what does stiff peak of egg whites mean?
It means that the egg whites are beaten to the extent that it gets fluffy.. when you scoop it & try to pour it, it won't pour/ it will hold a stiff peak.. it will takes about 15-20mins using the mixer to reach the peak.. don't overbeat..

It is a fairly simple recipe especially for the first-timers in baking and the outcome is nice.. my husband doesn't like fancy cakes, and he did enjoy eating this cake.. the taste was just nice.. good luck!

Housewife..

2009-07-22T19:55:00.013+01:00

Salam..

It has been a while since we last updated our blog.. We just couldn't find the mood to write in our blog & to continue with our travelogue of Paris.. we will surely finish it sometime (hopefully soon)..

As the title reads, I'm a full time housewife now (temporary post).. ;) it wasn't easy to take this 'career break'.. to be honest I wasn't really sure about this.. towards the end of June, we had great times.. we weren't too busy.. and the workload was reasonable.. and I was offered another 6 months in geriatrics.. I felt like I'm becoming more confident in doing my job... but I've made my mind although the job offer was very tempting.. I kept convincing myself that I needed this break.. that I need to prioritise my life..

But on the 3rd of July I received a phone call from my ex-registrar asking if I'm interested in taking the offer.. and I kind-of-said no.. unfortunately another SHO resigned on the following Monday (that made they short of 2 SHOs) and they were desperate to find at least a substitute.. so again they called me, offering the job at my own conditions - whatever length of time I would want to work, locum rate, no call, either at rehab or regional - just say it, and they would agree.. and at that point I knew they were really desperate.. to think about it, it wouldn't be fair to the other SHOs in that team.. they are all new to the hospital, and geriatrics are nearly never not busy! and I felt obliged to help them.. short by 1 SHO probably still acceptable,short by 2 is definitely not! so I accepted the offer, that I would work up to a month or less if they found a permanent SHO & I would want to work in the Regional Hospital rather than in the rehab..

So I went back to work on the 12th of July.. it was a whole new team - new registrar, SHOs & interns.. turned out it was a quite week (which never happened before!).. our patients list - one page only! Prof made a joke that we should all be in disguise during our ward round (so that people won't argue that we should have less team members).. hehe.. 4 SHOs and 2 interns covering for 20+ patients.. that's like 3 patients each! well.. to be honest, that happens like once in a blue moon or should I say once a year.. hehe.. I felt like I was paid to just be at work without actually doing any work.. gaji bute.. hehe.. we were on general take on Wednesday - so I was expecting more work to be done on Thursday.. turned out we were very lucky.. we just got 9 patients to ourselves.. by Friday, our patients list was back to a page! 4pm Friday - we all left the hospital.. and Collin (the SpR) told me they found 2 SHOs and both of them would be coming to work the following week.. so that Friday evening, I bid goodbye to my new colleagues.. and somehow, I did feel sad.. they were all very good colleague.. I hope they'll enjoy their time in Limerick & I hope that I did help them in some way.. we'll probably be seeing each other again at some stage ( I hope)..

so since then, I'm back to 'unemployed' status.. hehe.. to be honest, I'm quite bored being alone at home.. going out? - too lazy.. but I'm lucky that my hubby is working in A&E now so he is doing shift work.. that means he spends maximum 8 hours in hospital everyday except if he's working on weekend (12hour shift).. and he also have more breaks - he is given a week off after working the night shift + followed by 2 weeks of 'optional' leave (he can either choose to work or to take the leave as it won't affect others), which means he can actually have up to 3 weeks off after each week of night shift.. but of course he is limited to 3 weeks of annual leave & 2 weeks of study leave.. this week he is on the evening shift (4pm to midnight)..

So what did I do at home? not much really.. just the routine things.. surfing the internet, cooking, watching the TV.. oh yeah,and planning our next vacation:) yeay.. our next destination is UK.. it'll be a leisure holiday, which means we are not going to many places and we will have more time to just relax.. can't wait for the next 2 weeks.. and then we will fly to UK.. our tentative is still a secret.. hehe.. this will probably be our last holiday for this year.. but we will see..;)

I did try a few new recipes.. I made the marble trio cake.. I also made karipap daging, keropok lekor, cendol & doughnuts! as for now, my baking activity is suspended as my mixer is broken:(.. my hubby will try to fix it at some stage.. I can't believe I didn't buy the product cover! uwaa.. will definitely buy it for every electrical item I'll be buying from Argos from now on..

the last cake I made before my mixer 'went on strike'.. huhu..

lightly fried meat curry puff..

home made cendol..

I'm a big fan of keropok lekor.. I loveeeee it.. I'm so thankful that I found the recipe - it tasted not as good as the one in Malaysia but at least we can still have a taste of it.. I finished them all in just 3 days! for breakfast & evening tea everyday;)

freshly made keropok lekor..

my breakfast.. hehe..

I guess I won't be cooking much after this.. need to control my diet, need to do more exercise plus I need to study for my exam.. that's all my aim for the next 2 months.. I need to have proper plan for my study and my diet.. hehe..

In less than a month, we will be celebrating Ramadhan.. time really flies.. I pray may this Ramadhan will be better than the last one.. especially as I'm not working.. I miss spending Ramadhan with my family.. the best one that I had was when me & my whole family spent our Ramadhan & celebrated Eid in Mecca.. that was the one of the best Ramadhan so far.. I pray may He give me a chance to be there at least once more.. Aminnn.. to all my readers, happy fasting & may Allah accepts our good deeds & forgives us of our wrongdoings.. Enjoy Syaaban & the coming Ramadhan:)

Paris - Day 2, Walkthrough

2009-06-23T06:07:00.008+01:00

Salam..

Alhamdulillah, we managed to finish Day-2 of our Paris tour in one piece.. Despite the fact being disappointed several times during the day, I was still fulfilled by the achievements in the day..

Louvre - The Wait

We left the hotel early in an attempt to beat the similarly-eager tourists at the Louvre entrance.. When we got there, the shine was bright, the wind was cozy and the morning traffic was just about to pick up.. We stopped by at one of the bridges which connects the two banks of the Seine to snap a few pictures.. All of the pedestrian bridges are usually jam-packed with people, but we were lucky not much of a traffic was there so early in the morning..

We arrived at the front entrance of the Louvre - the famous home of Leonardo's Mona Lisa, the action scene of the movie The Da Vinci Code - with the big glass pyramid welcoming us.. The queue was not that long, probably just about 50 people in front of us.. We arrived around 8.00am and had pre-empted the long queue, so fifty was not bad.. And we knew the front door was to be open only at 9.00am.. Unfortunately, there was a delay in the administrations part that the opening time had to be postponed to 10.15am.. We were losing precious time! So we decided to leave the line and visit other places first, maybe come back to Louvre on Wednesday, again attempting the front line.. We also realised that the museum will be closed on Tuesday..

It was really disappointing that that happened.. I was excited to explore the three wings of the majestic building.. Our day-plan was disrupted..

And Ina was getting cranky!

So, we went off to find some other places to visit, unknowingly to us several more disappointments were waiting for us..

We arrived at the Palais Royal only to be welcomed by a construction/renovation site.. *Sigh*..

Then Ina wanted to see Galerie Vivienne, so we walked there, again only to find an empty corridor of what looked like an old bazaar.. I had to convince Ina that the lighting at the time of photography was the snatcher when we looked at the picture in the guidebook.. *Sigh, again*..

We then headed back to the compound of the Louvre, but rather to queue we walked in the Jardin de Tuileries, a beautiful and one of the oldest public garden in Paris.. It was a stroll, really, taking several pictures along the way, just to soothe the building disappointment that greeted us that morning.. We stopped at the two ponds and dove into relaxation, trying to re-arrange the day as we went along..

At the entrance of Jardin de Tuileries

We decided then to take the Siene river cruise, the Batobus, to continue our vacation.. We hopped on at Musee d'Orsay and went all the way to the Latin Quarter, hopping off at Notre Dame.. We went inside the old cathedral where Quasimodo had lived before, astonished at the lavishness of the interior.. We did not spend long in there as there was a mass going on at the time we arrived.. The long queue again stopped us from waiting in line for the tower climb..

We headed to the Conciergerie and then lunch across the river.. It was not that difficult to find a halal food shop, as we had thought before arriving in Paris.. After that, we were back to the building beside the Conciergerie, Sainte Chapelle.. The queue was long, made worse by the airport-like security checks.. By the time we got in, we did not spend time wandering around and zoomed straight to the chapel.. The two-storey lavish building was equipped with the most extravagant tainted glass collection I had seen so far..

Admiring the stained glasses of Sainte Chapelle

We passed the time there and after that continued back to Notre Dame, now in the queue for the tower tour.. At that stage, even somewhat late in the afternoon, tourists were coming by the dozens, making me wonder whether Monday was usually a holiday for Paris or was it just summer time vacation for people.. After the wait, we managed to climb the tower, and boy it was tough.. The staircase was steep and tight.. We were only allowed to enter by tens every ten minutes, to avoid the traffic.. The first level was not bad, then up to the upper level and then all the way up to the peak of the cathedral.. At that stage, Ina was gasping for breath, puffing and huffing all the way! We climbed down after just being allowed five minutes at the top..

In front of the Notre Dame of Paris

Bird feeding in front Notre Dame

We took the Batobus again and headed back to our hotel..

Day 1 was not as bad as I had painted here, but certainly the queuing was not helping and the fact that the Louvre was delayed and we subsequently postponed our planned visit to the museum made a bad start for the day..

We enjoyed being at the top of the Notre Dame, we were astonished by the greatness of architecture and art in Sainte Chapelle and Conciergerie, we had a nice walk through Jardin de Tuileries and we liked it a lot traveling on water in the Batobus.. It was not all bad at all..

We will undoubtedly keep you updated of our progress in Paris..

Salam..

Paris - Day 1, Arrival

2009-06-22T04:10:00.004+01:00

Salam..

It is early and both of us are excited.. It is our second day of our stay in Paris.. 'Bienvenue' is what the Parisian will offer the greetings of to excited faces of tourists.. I may just summarise the first day of our stay here in this short entry..

Departure

We left our warm and cozy home and had Mate to drive us to Shannon Airport and arrived just before 12.30pm.. We had checked-in online (to spare our €40 per head charge) and had to wait just about 10 minutes before the baggage drop counter opened to drop our bags.. We then had lunch at the cafeteria upstairs.. Maybe we had planned it just nicely that after lunch we made our way to the departure gate and did not have to wait long at any stop..

Interestingly, just when we were about to board the plane (literally!), an airport groundsman asked us if the bag he was holding was one of ours.. It did look like Ina's bag, with the same padlock! We claimed that it was ours, thinking that the chances of somebody else having the same bag with the exact same lock was very unlikely.. Looking back, had we not claimed the bag, somebody might well be spending the vacation in Paris with no changing clothes! Or it would even be that way had the airport staff not taken the initiative to ask whose bag it was because there was no bag tag - it could well be left in the airport waiting for somebody to claim it! Phew..

The flight was direct and took one and a half hours and we arrived at Paris-Beauvais Airport around 5pm French time (GMT +1).. We took the prepared bus to the centre of Paris (well, not exactly) and the drive took about another hour and a half.. Myself and Ina actually did manage to catch a snooze on the bus.. As we approached Paris city centre, we saw the traffic - dense and horrible! But we had planned not to drive here (plus the fact that the French are left-hand drive) so it was less of our worries.. We arrived at Port Maillot bus terminal around 7pm..

Hotel

We tried our best to orientate ourselves in the middle of this new place but had failed so badly - mainly because the bus terminal was not even in the map of our tour book.. Port Maillot was further Northwest from the centre of Paris.. So, we took a cab and headed towards our hotel.. By the time we arrived, it was just turning 8pm.. In fairness, it was still summery bright, so we were not bothered by the lateness of the time.. We checked-in in our little 3-star hotel, Grand Hotel de Champagne.. It was close to the Louvre Museum which we will be spending our time in today.. The hotel is not as grand as we had initially thought, but I think it will be enough for resting as we are not planning to laze in the room but to wander around Paris..

Dinner

We were excruciatingly starving at this stage, so we headed out to find some decent dinner.. We walked North-bound Boulevard de Sebastopol as we were looking for the halal fried-chicken shop up this road, only to stop halfway when we saw a very busy restaurant with some Arabs there running the show.. We saw the Halal Certificate at the door and decided not to go down further to find the fried-chicken shop .. I had a whopping 'grillades mixtes' and Ina had something else (I don't even remember the name!).. They were both basically grilled meat with chips and rice and salad.. We were then entertained by two cups of Arabian tea on the house to finish.. That settled the grumbling tummy!

Strolling down Les Halles

As we made our way home, we realised two things; one - how did people say they manage to finish Paris in two days? It is big and very lively; and two - finding halal food is actually much easier than we thought.. We treated ourselves to some crepes with Nutella chocolate and walked back to our hotel.. At that stage, we were all ready to call it a day..

Lively Paris - street performers

Looking Forward To Louvre

We hope to visit the Louvre Museum today and some other places, maybe spending the sunset watching the busy Paris traffic from the top of Arc de Triomphe.. Maybe we will be able to catch a glimpse of the wrought-iron Eiffel with the lights on when the sun settles for the day, bearing in mind we are approaching the longest day of the year in two days' time..

I will keep you updated..

Salam..

The Long Silence, The Long Awaited Break..

2009-06-20T16:04:00.003+01:00

Salam..

Ahh.. Indeed, it has been a very very long time since my last entry in this blog, and also since Ina's last entry.. In fact, it was Ina's blog was the last entry.. Well, I guess it has come to the phase where job was just too difficult to handle to allow some time for blogging.. I know, I know, blogging is usually for people to read the owner's so-called online diary/journal.. Maybe we are just not ordinary people.. Extraordinary? I don't know.. Different..

For the few who glances into this site, I am very sorry it has not been updated lately..

I thought I would just say a few words.. Next week, in fact starting today, is our long-overdue annual leave.. Now, it is just going to be a week, but trust me, it we will be spending the time somewhere very interesting, maybe even romantic!

I will keep this updated..

Salam..

A week in conclusion..

2009-06-05T22:20:00.020+01:00

Salam..

I haven't been writing since last week.. reason - I'm back to work this week.. Much has happened since the last entry that I made.. There are wonderful memories, happy moments, sad news and mixture of events..

I'll try my best to put them all together in this entry..

Last weekend..
It was a long weekend as Monday was a public holiday.. as the weather was very nice with lots of sunshine, we decided to go to Cork.. People would ask, what would we do in Cork as Cork is a small enough city and actually we've been to all the tourists attractions in Cork.. I really don't know why.. probably it is the nearest city plus we have friends that are working in Cork.. so it would be nice to have a break & get the chance to meet up with my fellow friends..

As we have been to Jurys Cork hotel before, I decided to choose another place to stay (as my husband left it all to me to decide..).. so I chose Kingsley hotel as the price were the same but they included breakfast as well.. so,we were off to Cork on Friday evening.. when we reached Cork,my dear hubby asked me to look at the map and help him to find the direction to the hotel.. I kept searching in the map but I really couldn't fine the place.. I'm really not good with maps & directions.. after about 15mins looking at the map,I suddenly realised something & I laughed to myself.. I was reading the Dublin map!! hehehe.. even if I kept trying for the whole day,I definitely won't find the place.. and in the end Shaz found the place by himself.. hehehe.. Sorry la abang ekk.. ;)

The hotel is near the river and across the hotel there's a halal restaurant.. the room was very nice.. I love the decorations & the atmosphere in the room.. perfect for relaxation.. the bed was super comfy.. I wish that I can have a bedroom like that!

I wished I can bring home this bed;p

After resting for a while,we went out to get some dinner.. it was nearly 10.30pm & the Persian Cuisine was already closed.. so in the end we went to another restaurant..

Saturday..
Nothing much happened on Saturday.. A few of my friends went to Bantry to meet up with Rayyan.. We decided not to join as it would be a long drive (Shaz was postcall on Friday).. so we ended up strolling in the city centre.. We went to the bookstore & bought a few magazines.. I'm very interested in home design,sort of the interior-design-kind-of-stuff.. hopefully I will have the chance to decorate our own home in the future;) the weather was very nice and the city centre was quite packed with people.. there are a few street performances as well.. One that attracted me most was these 2 men arranging seashells to make a beautiful design.. the seashells were coloured with different colours.. I was so impressed as they have actually made an enourmous effort to make some money.. not just sitting around & beg..

there were actually 2 men doing this.. nice work of art..

After having a late lunch,we went back to the hotel & watched the BGT final.. & later that night,we got our dinner from the across restaurant..

Sunday..
We met a few friends & we spent time with them until late afternoon.. I haven't meet them for quite a very long time & most of them are still students.. & they're all going back to Malaysia for summer holidays.. huh,envy.. I wished I still can have the summer holidays.. student time were the best of times!

Monday..

Owh,the last day of this long weekend holiday.. I felt quite low to be honest.. knowing that my annual leave was nearly finished plus going back to Limerick, leaving the nice room & comfy bed.. huhu..

Breaksfast at Kingsley..

On that Monday,most of the streets in Cork were closed for Cork marathon.. we were escorted out of the hotel by a Garda motorbike as we were crossing the marathon track.. I was quite excited.. it is not a frequent event to be escorted by Garda/police.. felt like the guest of honour;)

You can see the marathon runners on the left side of the road..

But before heading back to Limerick,we went to Fota wildlife park just for fun.. i've been there before for a few times and I do love animals.. unfortunately we don't have lots of choices here. in Ireland.. there are Dublin zoo, Fota wildlife park & Lahich seaworld.. probably there are some more places that I don't know of..
As it was a public holiday with a very nice weather,there were a lot of visitors there.. mostly are families with small children.. and to be honest,I was more attracted to the children.. children are cute,aren't they? some are shy,some are very talkative & friendly.. some have tantrums.. I felt like pinching their cheeks;)

There was a group of people teaching how to play African Drums.. My dear husband joined the team but I refused.. prefer to be a photographer rather than a drummer;) there are children as well.. and they all looked like they really enjoyed themselves..

Enjoying themselves with the African Drums..

My dear husband trying to be friendly with the animal - failed;)

After spending about 2 hours,we headed back to Cork City.. and on our way back, we went to Ustaz Wan & k.Riza's house.. we knew them since were were students.. and we met them again accidentally on Saturday.. that was our first time visiting them in Cork and would probably be the last time as they're moving to Mallow next.. and they're planning to leave Ireland for good next January.. their apartment is in the middle of a shopping area.. we had a very nice lunch at their house (both of them are superb cook!!).. thanks to both of them.. we were nearly going to leave as they were expecting another group of guests - syuk & salwani with their newborn baby! but they persuaded us to stay.. and we ended up having dinner there as well..

It was nearly 9.15pm by the time we left Cork.. and we arrived home at about 10.30pm.. and that night we went to bed around midnight.. and Shaz were supposed to be oncall the next day..

Tuesday..
We were woken up by a phonecall at 5am.. Tok (shaz's grandfather) was admitted to the hospital & we were told that he might need an urgent surgery.. Shaz called his aunt and turned out it Tok has small AAA.. and he is stable.. Alhamdulillah.. I couldn't get back to sleep afterwards & lucky for me the day job wasn't too busy but I kept yawning the whole day.. back from work, I started preparing for my presentation for Thursday.. but lack of sleep didn't really help..

Wednesday..
It was my turn to be oncall.. and early that morning I heard the news about the missing Air France plane.. but I didn't know that the 3 irish on that plane were all doctors.. and to my surprise, one of them was working here in Limerick last year.. Dr Aisling Butler was working as a medical intern here last year.. I do know her but we weren't close.. I know she was a hardworking & dedicated doctor.. It is a big loss for all of us..
I was lucky that the call wasn't too busy.. I finished my last admission around 7.30pm & the next patient came at 5am.. and it between that time I managed to finish my presentation on monoclonal antibodies.. it was quite hard for me because I knew nothing about it!

Thursday..
As usual,we started with a dry round in clinical age assessment unit.. it is our routine to go through the new cases & the x rays and blood results first thing in the morning before going up to the wards.. of the 6 geriatrics patient that I admitted, we have 5 for ourselves.. after the dry round,I did my presentation & to my suprise, everybody seems to like it.. Prof Lyons & Dr Clinch thought it was a very good presentation.. so did the registrars.. and Prof even uploaded it in the geriatrics website.. Alhamdulillah.. I was so relieved that it was over..

Friday..
Shaz was oncall again.. he is doing the 'split weekend' call.. which meant he is oncall on friday till 12noon saturday & back to the hospital 12noon sunday till monday.. I didn't do much on Friday evening.. just lazying around.. Catherine & Mercedes held a house party but I didn't go as I don't have my favourite driver to drive for me;)

Saturday..
My dear husband came home at midday.. and later on last night we went to Majella's (the endocrinology SpReg) house.. She hosted a party - Endocrinology night out + her birthday party.. I baked an egg custard tart & brought it over to her house.. It was a nice party but we didn't stay for long as my hubby is oncall again today..

After my annual leave last week & the nice weekend we had together,I felt this week is quite tough for me.. and me and my dear hubby is taking turns doing call.. tonight I'm all alone again.. but at least this is the last weekend call for my dear hubby.. for some reason, I felt so lonely & I wish he's not oncall.. and tomorrow it's my turn to be oncall..
I can't wait for July to come;)

The Weekend With BGT

2009-05-30T22:17:00.009+01:00

Salam..

This weekend is somewhat different from other weekends.. Well, the fact that it is a Bank Holiday weekend means that we are all having an extra day of break on Monday.. Maybe it is due.. Anyway, we have spent the last few weeks watching Britain's Got Talent (BGT) and somewhat pondering and wondering on who was to win Britain's most prolific talent show and later having the chance to perform in front of the Queen..

Hmm.. What a season of this talent show.. Maybe it would be interesting to know what my thoughts are on these finalists..

Acts
1. Flawless - I had always been amazed and flabbergasted by the sharp choreography this group had shown since their audition several weeks ago.. Certainly since George Sampson won it last year and the cheeky Signature came second place, dance act has become among the act that has the 'promising glow' to snatch the title.. Unfortunately, their final act tonight had less electric from their show in the audition and in the semi-finals, and seemed to be drowned in the anticipation of a cracking finale and, probably, maybe I was hoping for them to perform another eye-opening presentation.. Or maybe the pressure of being the first act proved to be too much to handle..

2. Shaheen Jafargholi - This young man certainly has the world to look for after this.. The talent show has, undoubtedly, dug this boy from his slumber and introduced him to the public scene.. Bearing in mind that Shaheen almost stumbled at the first hurdle, the audition.. If my memory serves me correctly, this 12-year old schoolboy from Swansea came out in front of the three judges and sang Valerie (Amy Winehouse) and was stopped by Simon Cowell just after a few seconds.. Simon gave him another go and he went with MJ's Who's Loving You.. And quite correctly like Simon commented afterwards, "This is how one song can change a life".. For his final performance, he perfectly sang his life-changing song again and, in fact, performed it better than his audition.. But at this very tender age, he is a singer but not quite yet a stage performer - stage use and movements.. Nevertheless, the future is bright for this chubby-cheek kid..

3. 2 Grand - This act may well be one which touches your heart, just by hearing their story.. For John (76), a husband who lost his wife 18 months ago, been given the chance to see some brightness and share that happy experience with his grand-daughter Sally (12) may well be a memory to lift his days to come.. Of course, being a singer himself during his earlier years in life made him not much of a new face on the scene with stage-fright conquering his expressions, albeit not a professional singer.. For Sally, on the other hand, this girl with such mature voice may still have some future in the singing career.. However, in their final act, I have to say, John did forget that it was his line to sing and that flaw was obvious when audience were expecting a perfect partnership show..

4. Hollie Steel - This 10-year-old girl from Acrington was the nation's sweetheart when she first stepped in front of Simon and the gang.. In her audition, she tip-toed her way but that was not the impressive part at all.. Simon did not expect it at all when she opened her mouth and started singing.. She does have a very strong vocal, undoubtedly.. In her semi-final act, again she was the one with the drama when half-way through her song, she forgot her lyrics and stopped singing and started crying! Maybe she did charm her cute way through by asking to be given another chance and eventually managed to sing and got through to the finals, disposing Callum Francis in the process.. I am not a big fan of drama queens, so I was not her fan when she performed in the finals.. And I never saw her even as top three in the finals as I felt her performance, although better than her semi-final act, was too mediocre for my liking..

5. Aidan Davis - Certainly this young body-popper has a bright future ahead, and he is only 11.. Sweet-face and confident, he has the right ingredients to make it big.. Stunned the judges in his audition with Flo-Rida's Low and choreographed everything himself.. In fact, he is self-trained! In his semi-final act, he produced most probably the best one-man dance act of the year.. Unfortunately for him, his semi-final act was the day before the finals.. Unlike Hollie who pretty much needed just to choose a song and train, Aidan had to come up with a totally different routine within 24 hours.. And there was where he lost.. His performance lacked ingenuity and originality, merely by the strain of time to choreograph a new routine.. Hence, he lost his flair and flame in the final act when it really mattered.. Even Simon noticed the difference, and his tears after Simon's comment said it all.. But I am sure there is more to come from this young maestro..

6. Stavros Flatley - Another family duo but this dance is the funniest act of the season.. They made their Brit entrance with a cheeky self-choreographed Irish riverdance performance.. Now, you have to admit, nobody would ever thought that an Irish-dancing Greek-family-duo would be in the Britain's Got Talent finals.. But, the act has the perfect combination of electric and entertainment in it.. On top of that, the emotion shown between the father and the son was just touching.. Some people may say that was what entertainment meant - family coming together.. Hilarious routine, made better by the proper Irish dancing troupe behind them, to the level that it was concluded that Simon is so cool that 'no one is that cool and is not a bit Greek'! Absolute utter genius and hilarious..

7. Shaun Smith - This 17-year-old clean-face rugby boy came to the scene with such mature voice, singing his way through his way to the finals.. He was dubbed the biggest competition for Susan Boyle.. His song in the finals was the classical Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers, 1971), the same song he auditioned with.. Nobody could doubt his talent when he sang U2's With Or Without You in the semis.. Nicknamed the real-life Troy Bolton!

8. Susan Boyle (First runner-up) - Now here's the lady who did not realize she was famous, to the level that she was a big hit in America! In seven weeks, she transformed from an anonymous Scot to a world icon.. Her popularity only made better by her strong vocals.. Unfortunately for her, due to the media attention she had, she had been marked as having a 'dark side' not worthy of representing Britain as a celebrity.. Well, put it this way, rather than bottling up and giving in, she stepped her game up and gave her best performance to the top notch.. Deserved the attention and certainly the credit..

9. Diversity (Winner) - I may not be the biggest fan of this group, I have to say, merely by the fact that they were already a successful dance group, albeit not on mainstream.. However, I will not deny their talent and perfection in the final act.. The Transformers routine was not new, that they had performed it already in 2008 (in UK Streetdance Championship), but the 3-X buzzes imaging the BGT judges was certainly new and original.. They did, in my opinion, better than Flawless, especially if we were to compare from humour and creativity checkbox.. Certainly deserved the GBP100,000 price!

10. Julian Smith (Second runner-up) - Julian was probably a nobody before BGT.. This humble guy came in to the scene with his saxophone and awed the judges and audience.. From my perspective, he is the only act among the ten finalists who has the soothing and calming charm.. He performed his audition song again in the finals and nailed it so good.. Simon was probably right, he needs to get his doubts out of his mind and tell the world what he could do.. He had always seen himself as 'almost there but never get it'-type of a person, but the Brits now would disagree with him every single time.. Julian Smith is in the house and has every shot of the future..

Our Verdict
This is what I felt the final rankings are (excluding the top three)
1. Diversity
2. Susan Boyle
3. Julian Smith
4. Stavros Flatley
5. Shaheen Jafargholi
6. Shaun Smith
7. Flawless
8. Aidan Davis
9. Hollie Steel
10. 2 Grand

Well, it has been a great season for BGT.. Maybe better next year.. We never know.. And I end this entry with, what I think, the most entertaining performance of the final..

Salam..

My Tuesday..

2009-05-27T09:11:00.009+01:00

Salam..

Oh it's Wednesday today.. time really flies.. nearly half way through my annual leave.. huhu.. I just stayed at home as my dear hubby is working this week.. I went out yesterday to settle a few things including paying the speeding ticket! hehe.. I still can't believe we got a speeding ticket.. In all fairness, my dear hubby was driving alone (me, as usual, was sleeping;p), we just finished the 3 hours exam, it was raining & we were rushing home as we were working as usual the next day.. the limit was 50mph & he drove 72mph.. for that, he was 'rewarded' a speeding ticket & 2 points.. hopefully that would be the first and the last one!

Back to my story, after settling a few things in the bank and in the post office, I went to find the tart mould.. went into a few shops but couldn't find even one.. at last, I just went to buy groceries.. I kept thinking what should I cook for dinner.. was hoping to cook something different, at least not chicken! I kept looking around until I reached the fish section.. I was trying to figure out which one to buy when the saleperson/fishmonger said "Off today,are ya?" I just smiled and nodded.. "you're working in the Regional aren't you?".. Oh my God, I was hoping that he was not one of my patients coz I really couldn't recognise his face.. "my father was in the hospital under Mr Kavanagh.. I think I did see you around in the hospital.." pheww.. I wasn't working with Mr Kavanagh but I can understand if he was mistaken because there were 6 Malay girls working as surgical interns at that time! probably he did see me at some stage.. I smiled back to him, "I'm working in the Regional, I was working with Mr Waldron and now with Dr Clich..", I explained to him.. "Oh I know Dr Clinch.. Lovely man.. He is my neighbour.. We live in Adare.."..(oh yeah,that is the same man..) "It was a first class treatment in that hospital.. my father had an operation under Mr Kavanagh & then he was in St Ita's..",he said."so he must have known Dr Clinch then.."."oh,he knew him all his life.. they were good friends", he replied to me with a smile.. I did ask how is his father doing now, sadly his father had passed away.. I apologised for asking.. he smiled and said not to worry about it.. and I walked away with trout & seabass in my hand..

In a way, I'm proud to be part of his good memory of the hospital.. and it reminds me of how my job affects peoples' lives.. that it is important not only to treat the patients well but also their family members.. coz they'll remember you well.. you would have hundreds of patients but they have only a few doctors.. of course they will remember you.. especially at the critical times, when they're sick or become very worried over a family member.. I found that they will really appreciate if the doctor can spend some time explaining a procedure or updating their progress.. of course there are time constraint and sometimes I wasn't able to entertain each and every patient or family members.. it is always a two way understanding between a doctor and a patient.. A doctor have to understand the needs of the patient & the patient have to understand the work & time constraint of a doctor.. there were times that I made family members waited for nearly an hour but in the end,when I apologised they would respond positively,because they knew that I was busy and that they were taking some of my time for other patient as well.. It makes a lot of different if both parties have a good understanding, considerations & most importantly manners.. of course that is just my opinion..

That was not the first time I was greeted by a patient or a family member of the patient.. it is a nice feeling when somebody comes to you out of the blue and thank you for saving his/her life.. or to thank you for looking after them.. of course, we are human.. we tried our best and only God have the power to heal.. I thank Allah for letting me touch the lives of people through my job.. sometimes we may forget, and it is great to be reminded from time to time..

***

I cooked asam pedas ikan and stir fry mixed vegetables for dinner yesterday.. I also made apam balik afterwards.. it wasn't the nicest apam balik but at least it did taste like apam balik;) hehe.. My dear hubby is oncall today.. wonder what I should cook for him.. need to lift up his mood as he is going to miss the football match tonight:)..siannn abang.. ;)

Annual leave = awaited break!!

2009-05-25T17:44:00.014+01:00

Salam..

My dear husband had made an entry about our weekend in Dublin.. it was surely a wonderful weekend although it was very short (or else we would be spending more!!).. the weather was very nice on Sunday.. at last, a bit of sunshine.. alhamdulillah..

Our hotel room in Dublin.. I like the mirror & the guy in it as well;)

Pillow menu.. hmm.. which one is tasty;p

We were lucky that the sale is on in Dublin (or should I say unlucky?;p..) My dear husband kept asking me what I wanted for our anniversary.. I really didn't have anything in my mind except the hope & prayers that we will stay happy together not just in this life but also in the afterlife..

Because I didn't ask for anything in particular,we ended up just strolling around Grafton & O Connell street.. until we reached Arnotts shopping centre.. and of course the sale was on there as well.. of all the sale,the kitchen department sale was the most attractive one! there were sales on cutlery, dinner sets, pots sets, coffee machine, mixer etc.. I'm a big fan of Prestige & Tefal.. So whenever there are sale on these brands,I will have a look around.. I already have the Prestige & Tefal pots sets.. So I ended buying the Select Teflon pots with more than 50% off.. They are beautiful pots,red in colour & most importantly non stick.. we also bought the Viners cutlery.. with nearly 60% off,I couldn't resist it although we already bought 1 set in last Christmas sale.. for me,they're worth buying.. good quality plus big sale! (not to mention I got them as anniversary gifts;) thank you,abang!).. I think my kitchen is complete now.. probably will do with one more dinner sets.. hehehe.. hmm.. not for the time being,I guess.. probably before going back to Malaysia for good..

Overall it was a great weekend.. I wish we could spend more time in Dublin.. haven't seen my Dubliners friends for a long time.. definitely will visit them one day,insyaAllah..

Puppet show in Grafton Street.. It was cute & entertaining..

Got the fishing game! hehe.. glimpse of the cutlery at the back..

This week is my annual leave.. Finally I can have a break.. yeay.. I have a few important things to do this week.. today I just stayed at home,did the laundry & tidying up the house.. I definitely need more space in this apartment.. hmm.. I wonder how did we end up with lotsss of things in our house.. hehehe..

I have found a few recipes that I want to try out.. I was planning to make fruit tart tomorrow but unfortunately I couldn't find the tart mould.. will try something else then.. hopefully I'll stay in the cooking mood this week;)

Till we meet again..

Wonderful Weekend

2009-05-24T20:16:00.002+01:00

Salam..

As you well have read, Ina entered the story on us spending the weekend in Cork, just lazing around there as part of our pre-anniversary celebration.. Now, the word 'pre-' was an indication that the weekend spent in Cork was merely a warm-up session.. And you may well then deduce that another 'proper' celebration was due.. I don't think that all this would need explanation, but just for the sake of telling, the pre-celebration was because our anniversary had fallen on Monday, which meant that there was no way a proper celebration could be done as it was a working day for both of us.. So, to complete the celebration, and to some extend, to compromise for not celebrating on the day itself, there was the pre-celebration and this weekend plan..

As many of you may have noticed, I had quoted 'a big plan' weekend on my Facebook shoutbox.. This is the weekend for you to share..

Saturday

Ina had her Geriatric Dinner in a restaurant in Adare on Friday night.. She only got home almost around 2am.. I, on the other hand, went out with Mate (Fadzrul) and had dinner in Copper 'n Spice.. We took our time having our dinner since I knew Ina would be late - just like the last time she went out for her Geri dinner last year!

We left Limerick by train at 9.55am, having had Mate to send us to the train station in the pouring Irish rain on that Saturday morning.. Of course, we had planned to take the 7.30am train but the cosy bed and the cool morning because of the rain had made it so hard for us to get up (plus the fact that we both slept late - me waiting for Ina and Ina arriving home late).. We arrived in Heuston Station in Dublin at 12.30 just after noon, with the rain following us all the way from Limerick.. We took the cab to St Stephen Green Shopping Centre, where our hotel is nearby located.. We had traveled with very minimal baggage that it made it easy for us to walk around before checking in..

Brooks Hotel was just about 5mins away from the shopping centre.. We checked in, and then being told that our room was upgraded from a double room to a deluxe room on the second floor.. I wonder if Ina had told them we were spending the weekend there for our wedding anniversary, since she was the one booking the room? The room was simple, quite like an old but sophisticated room used in the early English times.. The kingsize bed was just too hard to resist when the weather outside was not that friendly.. Oh, and I have to highly salute the service and attention they give to their customers - such friendly service that I would actually recommend that hotel for you fellow readers, if you ever want to stay in Dublin.. Probably one of the best service we have had in our hotel stays around the world we have been to..

Since we arrived in Dublin around the time of lunch, by the time checked in and settled in the room, it was due for lunch.. The fact that we only rushed breakfast with some stale scones and croissants didn't help either.. We decided to have a bite in Wagamama for lunch.. Unfortunately for us, even at that hour the place was jam-packed! So, giving in to the grouching stomach of ours, we went off to have lunch in Jewel In The Crown, an Indian restaurant nearby to Grafton St.. I had a small meal with chicken jalfrezi and coriander naan and Ina had her usual Chef's special briyani, which was actually a mixed chicken-meat-prawn briyani.. We didn't intend to have a big meal since we planned to have a sushi dinner later..

We got back to our hotel room after lunch, after stopping by at Clarendon Medical to get some books..

Later on, we went out to have dinner in Yo! Sushi.. It was all a different setting from our usual Aya.. Aya has since closed due to the economic strain.. We got ourselves some sushi meal but I would not say it was the best sushi meal we had had.. Well, at least we kept the plan..

We retired that night after dinner..

Sunday

Starting off the day, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant.. Of course, it had been included in the bill anyway.. Toasts, scrambled egg, croissants and tea and coffee.. I had some yoghurt too.. Then, after that we cleared our room and checked out, heading to town for a little bit of shopping..

First off, we headed towards Grafton St, but interestingly Ina saw a pair of purple stiletto but the Shoe Rack shop was still closed.. So off we went to Brown Thomas, cruising around and peeked into Prada and Hermes shops, but none of the handbags attracted Ina.. We walked through the perfume department and that was where I offered to buy Ina Magnifique from Lancome.. In all fairness, we had tried it before in Cork but didn't come around to buy it.. So, we closed the book that time and picked up a bottle.. This was on top of four bottles from Saturday - EA's Splendour, EA's Green Tea and two bottles of CK Obsession Night.. They were on sale!

We went back to Shoe Rack and Ina tried on the purple stiletto pair, but eventually did not take it because the rose at the top of the shoes were not the same size.. Instead, she bought a different pair - the silver pair..

After that, we just strolled around Grafton St and headed towards Henry St..

Interestingly and surprisingly, we bumped into Shiqin and her brother with her 'special someone' (so I believe).. Short chat and we were off again.. Shiqin was entertaining her brother who was on vacation from Indonesia.. Oh, yes.. She also informally invited us to her big day which would be sometime in December.. Good new all around!

At Henry St, we stopped by at Arnotts, browsed through some of the kitchen stuffs and got locked into two beautiful things - a set of 58 cutleries and a set of Meyer Teflon pots.. Even more interesting, both were on sale! So, we really had made the decision that we would buy the two but would hold it for the time being and planned to buy it closer to the time we would be going home, avoiding the hassle of carrying the two big boxes..

Ina actually bought a toy set from Toymaster - the one she had been longing since we were in Letterkenny! We went back to Arnotts and got the two big boxes and off we headed to Heuston Station.. We actually bought some lunch to take away from Epicurean before leaving..

Ride Home

Our train left for Limerick at 3.25pm and the ride was smooth and direct.. We didn't have to switch trains at Limerick Junction Station and arrived in Limerick just before 6pm, and took a taxi home..

In all fairness, this year's anniversary was not as posh as it was last year.. The fact that we were both working on the day itself also did not help.. But, celebration being celebration, the most important thing is that our marriage is still going strong and only stronger by the day.. Sure, there are ups and downs, but every moment is just better and more magnificent than the day we fell in love and started this life..

For my dear wife, Ina..

Of course you're beautiful, you are my own angel from heaven..
Of course you're sweet, you are my God-given solace..
Of course you're perfect, you are my blessing for life..
And
Of course I love you, forever and ever..

Happy Anniversary, My Dear Darling

Salam..

Pre-anniversary celebration;)

2009-05-17T21:05:00.009+01:00

Salam..

I'm back again.. this weekend has been a happy weekend for me:) usually my weekend is filled with cooking & baking.. this weekend,we managed to escape from the hectic & boring life in Limerick.. hehe.. I really wanted to go somewhere else,anywhere at all except Limerick!! Our next vacation is still quite far away.. so I persuaded my dear husband to go out of Limerick for the weekend especially as our 2nd anniversary is coming soon (ie tomorrow)..

I didn't have a plan for our anniversary this year.. probably because I knew that we'll both be working on that day.. So, I just made a simple last minute plan - spending a lazy weekend together in Cork! we were both post call on Friday,so I knew that it won't be a good idea to go far.. It would just be a waste of time plus my poor husband would have to drive (while me, as always, be a good co driver;p hehe..)

I didn't really know where to go in Cork,so I just use my skill of Googling.. I tried to find a fairly good hotel for us to stay & fortunately managed to find one in the heart of Cork hence it would be handy for us to grab some food from the city..

I booked an executive room for us - it was a nice room,with a nice view.. as usual when we arrived,first thing that we did was exploring the entire room - to make full use of everything there:) lucky for my hubby,he found Sky Sports while flipping through the TV channels.. So he managed to enjoy the match between his favourite team,Man United and Arsenal.. and for me, I enjoyed the first 2 hours by sleeping.. Zzzzzzz...

view from our room...

My husband surfing the internet.. can you see that Nespresso coffee machine?

I woke up just in time to watch Man U given the trophy.. Afterwards we went out for lunch & quick stroll at the city centre.. and we grabbed sushi & burger before heading back to our hotel..

It was a very short getaway for us.. I'm looking forward for a proper vacation next month..

Happy 2nd anniversary to us! to Abang,thank you for for your beautiful love that makes my life so wonderful.. thank you for always be with me through ups & downs.. through rough & sweet times.. thank you for being a good friend & a loving husband.. may Allah bless us always.. I love you so much..

Kuih mode...

2009-05-10T15:47:00.011+01:00

Salam..

I'm back again after quite a long silence.. I was oncall last weekend,had to come to work on Monday (which was a public holiday) & I was oncall again on Thursday.. this week has been pretty busy as we were on general take 3 nights in 2 weeks,not including 2 geriatrics take.. we were trying hard to keep the numbers down.. and as for Friday,I think we have less than 55 patients on our list,which was reasonable given the number of our calls in these 2 weeks..

This weekend was the weekend that I was waiting for.. I truly need a break.. Can't wait for my annual leave to come.. *sigh*.. most of my patients are long stay patients,and I felt like I'm seeing the same patients over and over again.. & sometimes I feel hopeless that I wasn't able to do anything more for them..

Enough with work.. this weekend,my mood suddenly changed.. I felt so relieved.. and as usual,my kitchen keeps me happy;) I wasn't in the mood for cakes and bakes.. I was more keen to make traditional kuih muih.. hehe.. so I made roti jala & karipap (my 1st try ever!)..my dear husband recently asked me for karipap,which is my favourite as well.. he was oncall yesterday,so I decided to give it a try so that he can enjoy it after coming back from work.. and the results are good,Alhamdulillah.. I got the recipes from the internet.. enjoy the pics!

Roti jala with condensed milk.. my way of enjoying the kuih.. my dear hubby made chicken curry but it has finished by the time I snapped this pic..

Excuse the different shapes & sizes.. hehe.. I'm so not good in arts! hehe..

Oh yeah.. I forgot to upload the pics of the presents that I got from my lovely friends on my birthday.. Thanks again to all of u! (you know who you're;)..)

A spongebob ballon!! I definitely know whose idea was this..;)

Wallet & telekung - inside the bag with the ribbon.. (made by Wan's mother - thank you makcik!)

The weekend is nearly over.. huhu.. back to work again tomorrow.. *sigh*..

My Study Leave So Far..

2009-05-06T11:28:00.004+01:00

Salam..

As promised, despite my time should be spent on books and studies, I am back facing this blogspot site and updating you with my stories.. I am convincing myself, though with not very much success, that my week is being spent ever so nicely with studying for my upcoming exams.. Nevertheless, I am here to share my experience in an air ambulance..

Shannon To Northolt

I arrived at the ward yesterday morning early, quickly grabbed Mrs B's notes and registered the events of the weekend in my brain.. It was only at that moment that Sinead (one of the staff nurses) asked if I had had my breakfast.. For obvious reasons, one being I am not usually a breakfast person, I had not.. So, the nurses being very caring as always had me rushed for coffee before leaving the hospital for the journey.. I got myself a muffin and a cup of tea after stopping by at my boss's office, in view that I wanted to discuss few things prior to the transfer.. I was leisurely having my light breakfast when I was called up and told the ambulance was about to leave..

Myself, Mrs B and two family members of hers got on to the hospital ambulance around 9am and we headed towards Shannon Airport, about 30km from the hospital.. The drive was fine but the morning traffic did not help.. Fortunately, we did not have to rush for the flight as Mrs B had an uneventful weekend and was very much stable..

At around 9.45am, we were ready to take off.. The dark green Air Corp plane was ready to roll.. Paul, Ronan and Steven introduced themselves as the officers in charge and helped us on to the flight.. The inside of the 1994 plane was awesome, in the sense that it was like taking a military plane.. There were monitors and radios and radars and infra-red sensors! Not that we were hoping a more extravagant plane, but Mr B did joke that we were taking the "World War II" plane.. Indeed, the propellers on both wings gave it away.. Obviously, there was no in-flight entertainment, no catering service.. But the life jackets were all equipped with radios and flares, on top of the usual whistle and light.. We got the top-end life jackets!

The flight was a little bit rough.. Certainly we were flying a bit lower than the usual commercial flights.. In fact, we were told that the plane is used as marine patrol usually.. Odd times as a free-service air ambulance.. The air-conditioning was loud and the propellers were noisy too.. Other than that, the flight was good.. Also, as I was the medical officer on duty, my priority was to make sure Mrs B was fine throughout the transfer.. I also brought 2units of red cell concentrate in case Mrs B bled.. I did not go for fun - I was working!

We arrived at Northolt Royal Air Force base around 12noon, somewhat 10miles outside Central London.. An ambulance was already waiting for us to bring us to the final destination - Charing Cross Hospital..

At the destination, we brought Mrs B up to Level 6 and steered around until we found that she had a bed ready in Ward 6 South.. The nurses tucked her in and I had to do two things before leaving; 1) to hand over to Prof Seckl's team, and 2) to dispose the blood I brought there in London.. Obviously, there was no reason to bring the blood back as the patient was there in London! I spoke to Dr Jules (Prof Seckl's SHO) and handed over the letters, briefed her the history and handed her the CD containing all of Mrs B's scans.. In the meantime, I managed to dispose the blood to the Blood Bank in Charing Cross Hospital.. I only had the igloo with me going back..

Long Journey Home

I bid farewell to the B's and headed back downstairs where the ambulance crew was waiting for me to bring me back to Northolt RAF Base.. It was a relief that everything went well during the transfer.. I rang my boss's secretary but Prof was not in, so I left a message saying everything went well and I was heading home..

The three guys were out having their curry while I was in the hospital.. We had predicted the transfer would bring me back to the RAF base around 3pm, but we managed to settle early and I was back at the base just after 2pm.. A little paperwork by the boys and we were set to take off again.. We left around 3pm and I arrived at Baldonnell airstrip, somewhat 15km outside Dublin, around 4.30pm.. The trip was fine except for the last 30mins or so.. We flew closer to the mountains and lower too.. So the air turbulent from the nearby mountains was rocking the plane hard! But I managed okay.. I spent the whole journey back sharing stories with Paul.. I thanked the guys and I was off to Heuston Train Station.. It was a bit of a mess as I had to land in Baldonnell, get a taxi (which was waiting for me) from the Co. Kildare base and take a train back to Limerick on the same day.. That was why I had to dispose the blood products in London, because there would have been drama if I was to bring a 'biohazard' on a public transport!

I arrived in Heuston, tried to catch the 5.05pm train but missed by approximately 30 seconds! So I grabbed a sandwich (which was awful!) and took the next train at 5.25pm.. The journey was okay, no problems.. I arrived in Limerick around 8.15pm and took a taxi back to the hospital.. Up back to the wards, returned the igloo in which I brought the bloods and headed home, having in mind Manchester Utd was playing Arsenal in the Emirates!

I got home and Man Utd was already leading 2-0, with a 3-0 aggregate..

Tired

Watched the game and had dinner at the same time.. Of course, the Devils cruise to the finals with a 4-1 aggregate, but stained by bad refereeing when Fletcher got the red card.. He will miss the finals..

Tadgh Lyons from Patient Services rang me later on and made sure I was fine.. I told her I was and she thanked me for doing the job.. I only had the patient's best interest in mind.. When they started to say that they needed clearance from the hospital's Business Manager to get the green light for a locum at 3.45pm on a Friday, I knew it will never get pass bureaucracy and the compromise was on Mrs B, so I took the job..

Overall, it was an experience flying in an air ambulance and I was actually on-duty for once in a flight, not going for vacation! These opportunities don't come everyday - stand up, stick your hand up and take the challenge! Even if it meant sacrificing one day of my study leave..

Well, get well soon, Mrs B..

Salam..

Lazy April

2009-05-03T23:39:00.005+01:00

Salam..

Again and again, I re-visit this blog site and throw a few words of the happenings from me and Ina.. Sadly enough, despite many beautiful stories to share, the blog has not been gladly sharing.. Apologies from our behalf.. We will try harder to entertain and inform as much as we used to.. Certainly by numbers, everybody can appreciate that April only logged four entries from us..

Even more worrying, lately all the entries have been of recent happenings between us, but as many could remember, I used to have and write some interesting stories from outside this cubicle house of ours.. I could still recall my inputs on various different topics including of being a doctor and the Large Hadron Collider..

Maybe it is an indication that I have been reading less and less from newspapers and about the events of the world.. Maybe it is an indication that I am now phasing myself to being somewhat an ignorant..

I should make a change..

Flu

As many now have noticed, despite actively trying or passively drifting to be an ignorant of the world's event, the world is now facing a pandemic in the form of 'Swine Flu'.. Albeit, some have suggested that it should be renamed and called 'Mexican Flu'.. At current position, not much is known about this disease apart from few little details..

We know that it is a virus, and quite likely a variant of the recent (2003) virus pandemic in South East Asia the 'Avian Flu'.. The Avian Flu was caused by the H5N1 virus strain.. Now, this pandemic is likely closely linked to (or perhaps a mutation of) the virus and re-presents itself as the H1N1 strain.. The difference : The Avian Flu was transmitted by birds while this new strain is transmitted by pigs, hence the name.. But, more recently, one reported case of human-to-human transfer has been described..

Where did it start? The Avian Flu started somewhere in Hong Kong, but this time it sparked from somewhere in Mexico.. And with Cancun being a popular tourist attraction, it is quite easy to say how this virus can be carried outside the country and infect people so far away from the native origin..

I shall not babble so much about this flu at the moment.. I have to say, I have been reading about it and I will try to find as much information as possible and digest and present to my readers in the form palatable to non-medical-background minds..

Patient, my friends..

The Week

This week had been rather slow-moving for me.. Studies had been somewhat turtle-speed but job was great..

I had the opportunity to see how hard it is now to enrol into a medical school, to the extend I have now no idea what colleges are looking for in the CV.. Even straight A's and excellent extra-curricular activity list are now being deemed 'not sufficient'? Maybe I was lucky at my time..

Also, we had a very interesting case this week passed.. And to cut the story short, we had to look for somebody to transfer this patient to Charing Cross Hospital in London on Tuesday coming.. I initially opted myself out by default as I am taking the coming week as my study leave.. However, at the very last minute on Friday, the Air Corp rang and told us they would not be able to supply a doctor to escort the patient to London.. And it all fell back on to Limerick Regional Hospital to find the escort..

In the end, I agreed as the hassle of finding another escort was too overwhelming (not for me) for Patient Services and Human Resources to handle.. So, as far as this very moment, I am due to travel in an ambulance from Limerick Regional Hospital to Shannon Airport, transfer the patient to London in an air ambulance, then come back to Ireland the same day in, what I was informed, a 'state plane'.. The ones that the ministers use for official travels.. Maybe if I am lucky, I will be in the flight with Mary Harney and I will certainly take the chance to express myself about the cutbacks and closing off of Nenagh and Ennis A&E departments!

I will share my experience of transferring the patient in due time..

No Sushi

Ina was oncall on Friday and only got back home around 4pm on Saturday.. She was exhausted, drained to the very last drop of her energy.. She fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed.. Later that night, she had asked to have sushi on Sunday, so I agreed and decided to take her to Cork..

Unfortunately, the sushi restaurant was closed and all of that sudden her mood changed.. I knew she was heart-broken.. I knew if that one thing had fallen into place quite nicely, she would have been happy for the weekend.. It was only made worse when she was asked to come in to work on Monday (tomorrow) despite tomorrow being a Bank Holiday weekend.. And, it will only be the consultant, Collin the reg, herself and Donncha.. It will be harsh for the two SHO's to cover the whole Geri patients on a public holiday..

I wish her best..

Maybe I will make some breakfast for her tomorrow to smooth her day.. Maybe even bring her out to dinner later if she wants..

Salam..

This Week

2009-04-26T20:05:00.005+01:00

Salam..

It has certainly been a fairly long while since my last entry.. As a matter of fact, I had half-written an entry and even that I didn't finish! Call it procrastination, call it lazy, or call it whatever you want, I will accept those and I'll just say "I'm plain lazy!"..

I might just take this entry to summarize the events of the week..

Dublin Trip

I started off the week with not knowing I was to be oncall on Monday, until about 5 minutes from leaving the house.. I was 99.99% convinced that I would be oncall on Wednesday until that very second I checked my oncall schedule.. Phew!

My first assignment that night was to transfer a 25-year-old man from ICU to the ICCU in Mater Hospital, Dublin.. Now that was not really the worse part.. I was told the man was on 'pressors' (dobutamine infusion) but was 'stable' and was not on ventilatory support.. What that means was this man is high-risk to 'crash' while on transfer.. Luckily, the transfer was quick and uneventful.. The drive from Limerick took merely two hours to arrive in Dublin! and we headed back (which took just under three hours) and I was back in A&E, ending up with two admissions in Resus just before 9am and missed half of Prof's ward round that morning..

Rest of the Week

Nothing majorly interesting throughout the week, though.. On Friday, I went to Cork with Mas and attended a Solat Hajat ceremony for the students.. In a way, I missed my involvement with students since I left the student body and phased into working.. Of course, the thing that made it more interesting was the Ceramah Motivasi oleh Pakar Motivasi dan Psikologi Dr Mas Mahadi (Motivational Talk by Motivational and Psychology Expert).. The fact that Mas had thought it would be a 15-minute informal talk to students facing their days of exams was the glittering part of it.. It turned out he had to 'made it formal' and prepared few slides for his presentation..

We came back to Limerick that same night after stopping by at Puden and Fiza's place.. Ina didn't come along as she finished late on Friday and was probably too tired to tag along..

We only stayed home on Saturday, cleaning the house..

Sunday - we went to Zali's house and met some friends there too.. Puden and Fiza and Fitri were there.. Fitri came all the way from Waterford.. Kak Yulia is not around, she is on maternity leave and went back to Malaysia with the baby and their first daughter too.. So Fitri was probably pretty much lonely and bored alone in Waterford..

We had lunch there and the chicken was good.. Puden and Fiza brought some spring rolls and muffins and Ina baked two cakes.. I'm not sure whether the cakes were the gauge of how 'depressed' she was facing Sunday and knowing Monday will chart the start of a new working week.. I know she finds relief in baking, so maybe she was in 'Level 2 Depressed'.. Her lip ulcer doesn't make it any easier..

Another Week

All in all, the coming week is coming and I m looking forward for the next weekend - it's the Bank Holiday weekend again.. Unfortunately, Ina will be oncall on Friday and she is dreading it..

We will keep you updated..

Salam..