Taxi and Visit Malaysia Year

I came across the news in The Star today, where traders and taxi drivers lamented their losses due to the mass peace parade on 10 Nov.

The most striking paragraph was this:

Taxi operator Leong Aw said taxi drivers lost much business because of the illegal gathering, saying it drove tourists away when they saw thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

“The Government is promoting Visit Malaysia 2007 which will help us make money, especially during this festive season. Such a gathering is not part of the Malaysian culture,” he said.

Well, the other day after attending the Annual Metabolic and IEM course in Grand Season hotel, KL, a few of us decided to go from GS hotel to Petaling street. It was a little heavy traffice that day (well, tell me what day KL is not having traffic jam, anyway), and 4 taxis refused to take us there -- then there was finally one taxi driver who offered to take us there, but we gotta pay RM30!!

After boarding his taxi, we told him that taxis should use meter instead of acting like illegal cabs, and furthermore it's Visit Malaysia Year 2007, taxis should lead good examples to abide by the laws and regulations of the country. And to our shock, the taxi driver replied," Well, the officers are lazy and they won't come and catch us taxi drivers, coz we are united. Furthermore, even if we get caught, our boss will settle it."

He paused a while, and then added," And looking at you few guys, (I) don't think you are from those agencies, so why should I be worried. It's jam here, and if you don't want me to take you there, you can always get off the cab and walk there yourself!"

WTF, damn bloody cocky and arrogant.

That's why when I read about the mass parade which caused losses to those taxi drivers -- I have two words for those (not all of them though) taxi drivers who have been so arrogant -- "padan muka"!

My new XPS

I just received my newly bought Dell XPS laptop 2 days ago. Initially I was contemplating to get a eeePC which is the most "in" gadget lately, but after thinking twice, I went for a proper laptop. I think when I have more time in the future, I will get a eeePC to explore further. But for now, I need a laptop to do work, and my wife can use this portable laptop to do her assignments in college as well.

Vista is something very new to me. And also there are quite limited softwares which support the system OS. The microsoft office 2007 is very expensive, and hence I have opted for the OpenOffice suite -- after trying out for 2 days, I can conclude that for normal usage, the open office is more than adequate!

Since my laptop is preinstalled with McAfee internet suite, I dont need to get any firewall and antivirus for it -- but should the subscription period ends, I will go for PCTools as my firewall suite, and possibly AVG antivirus as well.

Then I have also loaded it with FireFox browser, Adobe PDF reader, GTalk and also Media Player.

Whether you have realised by now, I have only freewares in my new lappy.

So far so good.

As for the Dell XPS system, it is a fabulous and eye-catching near-ultraportable laptop. It is just so sleek and sexy. Vista has added very nice GUI to the system as a whole. And with my 2Ghz processor, and 2GB ram -- it is so far stable and speedy.

The screen is just gorgeous. You need to really play with it to appreciate it. Keyboard is nice and almost full sized, with very positive tactile feel when doing typing. Touchpad and both its buttons are very positive as well.

All in all, this laptop is just fantastic. I have read so many reviews about this XPS system, and finally I have got one in my hand. And again, I am updating my blog with this new lappy in my couch, with a cuppa coffee next to me!

I will rate this XPS 4.5/5 stars! :)

A Sad Day For My Department

It's indeed a very sad day for my department yesterday. Our most beloved Head of Department, Dato Dr Lim NL, passed away peacefully, after months of sufferings and putting up a great fight with her cancer.

We were all at her funeral service last night, and the weather was as gloomy as our emotions and feelings. It was as though heaven was weeping for the loss of a great doctor too. Although I have just joined the department not long ago, and merely had a few occasions only to meet up and talk to Dato Lim, my very initial and lasting impression of her is that Dato is a very nice and sensible doctor, as well as a HOD. When I first joined the department, I had trouble adjusting myself into the new working environment; and through emails, Dato has given me encouragement and pieces of advice to make me feel at home when I am in this new place of work.

I hear many nice stories about her from my colleagues who have been with her longer. After I met up with Dato, I strongly believe what they said are true. Not an exaggeration.

And now Dato Lim is free from all sufferings, and may she rest in peace.

House Warming

It's been already nearly 2 weeks since I moved into my new house. In conjunction with my sis coming back from Kuching for a short break, I threw a small house warming party yesterday -- but only my family members were invited! ;)

We had very simple dinner for this unique occasion. Only fried rice (from one of my family's favourite shops) and KFC as the main course; then we had Apple juice as the beverage and finally Baskin Robbins ice cream as dessert! Although it was really a simple celebration, the togetherness of all my family members (of course the nanny and Indon maid are around as well) was what I cherish most.

After the makan, instead of turning on Astro as the after-meal entertainment, my 2-month-2-week baby girl became the spotlight of everyone around. I think she brings so much joy and happiness to me, my wife, and also all my family members.

And with the whole house aircond turned on, it's so enjoying and comfortable staying indoor. Home sweet home...

Difficult Parents

Sometimes in Paediatrics, the most troublesome part does not lie in the patients, but in their parents who think they know a lot, but in actual fact, they know nothing or the wrong thing.

Take for example today, my colleagues and I had difficult time explaining the importance of CBD urine sample, as part of the prolonged jaundice investigation. After getting consent to proceed with inserting the CBD -- luck did not side us. It was a hard time looking out for that tiny little urethra opening in that chubby little baby girl. And so, the parents who were outside the treatment room, rushed in and started blaming us for "torturing" their baby -- and they asked "is it necessary to have that CBD afterall?" ... "can't you all just use the urine bag for collection?"

Well, mister and missus, your kid has tried a clean catch urine for the past 4 times, and each time was a lousy catch -- heavily mixed growth urine sample. So how many more times you want to take leave from your boss just to come here to the clinic and learn that you need to repeat your kid's urine sample?

Sometimes, parents think very superficially. When it comes to a sick child, they think the doctors are God, and with a magical touch, their kids will recover without any invasive intervention. They will only want some oral medication -- anti-tussive, anti-diarrheoa, anti-fever, anti-vomit, anti-biotics, anti-viral ... and anti-almost-everything-under-the-sun. But when it comes to a hospital setting, they are defensive, they are suspicious, they are ignorant... some are arrogant.

• Blood taking time -- they ask "why are u taking so much blood, my child will be anemic!"
• CBD insertion time -- they yelled "hey can't u just ask the nurse to collect the urine using a bottle?"
• Resetting IV lines -- they frowned "u all didn't set a good line earlier on, huh?! unnecessary suffer for my kid"
• At the A&E -- they asked "why are u not admitting my child?"
• But in the ward, less than 24 hours -- they asked "can my child be discharged today?"

It is easy for others to say -- well, who ask you to do paeds? who ask you to take up medicine as a career? you should be more compassionate as a doctor... blah blah blah

But all in all, I think I have not chosen the wrong career. It's just the public education needs to be strenghtened and the public needs more guided education by the medical staff, rather than letting them to read info over the internet.

Finally Into My New House

After a long one year of preparation and hard work, finally my wife, my baby and I moved into our new house few days ago. Really satisfied with the newly renovated house. With the whole house fully air-conditioned, I think this is one the "wishes" I ever wanted since childhood days -- whenever I stayed in hotels, I had always told myself I wanted my house to be "hotel-like" one day! And now my dream has come true! Breezing cold staying in my house! ;)

And today, me and my wife went shopping at IKEA -- well, to tell you the truth, this is my first time buying things from IKEA. Previously I had always window shopped at this place, but never bought a single thing before. Possibly because last time I didnt have a house of my own, so no point buying things from IKEA -- afterall its a place for home reno and deco stuffs!

The whole afternoon, I spent time with my wife in the family hall -- sitting on the newly bought Rozel leather sofa set -- drinking coffee... hmm, this kinda weekend enjoyment has never been as good before this! And with our nanny taking care of our baby on the second floor -- we were relieved from the parental job for the time being! Haha...

And oh yes, with the newly bought Indesit tumble dryer, there is no more drying laundries in the sun -- we can do the laundry at night, and within 1-2 hours, the clothes will be washed and dried and ready to be used the next day! Wow... marvellous technology.

There are of course so many more things to buy and add on to my new home -- but for the time being I am just overwhelmed by this new home -- just perfect! :)

Another Month Passed By

Time flies... another month has just gone by. I was so occupied and just so busy over the last one month. My baby, my new house renovation, my new Treo, on calls ...etc. Everyday 24 hours just seemed so inadequate for me.

My baby has grown a lot since birth -- well, otherwise all my hard-earned cash buying her the milk would have gone in vain! (Oh please, don't criticize me why we are not exclusively breastfeeding our baby... haha!) I haven't been weighing her regularly, plotting it on the centile chart -- no, I am not obsessive -- but by my clinical judgment I know she is growing well! ;) She has been rather naughty lately, as she loves to sleep in the day and wakes up in the night (maybe she loves to be on call too!) -- Luckily I managed to persuade my wife's confinement lady to continue as a nanny to my baby girl!

My new house is almost ready, and I will be moving in end of this month. From a simple and original house when we first bought over -- now it has been transformed into a beautiful house with all the renovations in place -- my wife and my dream house! :) I am also currently contemplating to look out for more locum posts to replenish my bank account!

My new Treo 680 has been a great gadget so far. I have no regret getting it afterall. Although there is no WiFi, the GPRS has served me quite well all these days -- I mainly use it during on call time, when there is no case, I will update my Facebook, read some newspaper and run through my RSS feeds using Google Reader. Initially I was thinking of changing to DiGi EDGE, but then after checking on my monthly Celcom bill, the GPRS usage is usually just around 20-30 bucks, so it's still not worth while changing to the 99-unlimited package.

The Treo's keyboard seems a little small, but after nearly 1 month using it, I am so use to it now. I can type pretty fast now. And with Mundu IM installed, I can IM with my family members using GTalk or Yahoo messenger. The other program I use a lot in my Treo is Backup Buddy VFS, which I think is one of the most important software in my Treo -- a few crashes on and off (due to software incompatiblity) has been saved by restoring my whole Treo using the backup software.

Well, there is a lot to write up on my Treo. But probably I will do it when I am free the next round. AS for today and tomorrow, it's holiday for me and the whole nation, and I hereby wish all Muslim friends and bloggers -- Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! :)

My New Toy -- Palm Treo 680

After contemplating for a long time, I finally give up my existing iPaq 6828 and go for a Palm Treo 680. I am quite sick of the lag and hang of the WM phone. Taking advantage of the recent offer, organized by Palmdoc, I received my Treo 680 today -- delivered by C2O rep (Desmond) to my doorstep.

The first impression I get when I open up the box is -- Treo is beautiful. When I turned on the unit, the screen is gorgeous. Even better than my Palm TX's screen, I dare say. And immediately I try out the camera (coz the iPaq phone camera is driving me nuts -- crazily slow!) -- not bad at all! Of coz I am not expecting a 3.2MP camera picture quality, but I must admit, in normal lighting, the pics taken are very decent and nice!

The only problem I need to overcome now, is the small QWERTY keyboard, which I need some time to get use to. I am so far a stylus-person, and not so use to keyboards -- whatsmore such tiny keys! My thumbs are big.

My wife saw the Treo 680 and she immediately gave me that smile on her face -- must be trying to tell me "can I have one too?" -- and so I told her,"If you like it, you can have it, and I will take your TX." But she said I will get to use it first, and if I dont like it, then she will not hesitate to have it! ;)

Charging the unit now, and for the next 8 hours, I will be eagerly browsing through the internet, to look for any Palm softwares for my Treo -- my new toy!

Happy Merdeka!

It's 31st of August. Happy Hari Merdeka, Malaysia! :)
I wish all Malaysians a prosperous and fruitful year ahead!

Fatherhood So Far...

I am supposed to be on call today (if you read my last post), but surprisingly today I received a phone call from a colleague, and he is willing to take up my call today; so that I can enjoy my paternity leave! I am glad to have such understanding and considerate colleague, in this new place of work! :) Thanks pal!

Few days have past, and it's indeed nice to be a father; well, at least every morning, I don't get off bed yawning or lying down a little more just to catch that few more minutes of sleep. Now, I jump off bed, and can't wait to see my cute little daughter -- then snap a few photos of her, in various postures; be it crying, smiling, making funny faces etc. Just awesome! :)

My life is now in a new chapter -- full of hopes! Sometimes people do think that marriage and having children are just burdensome, but for me and my wife, we both think it's a gift; and we will cherish every moment that we have!

My new house is almost done. Can't wait to move in. I will probably hold a house warming party, in conjunction with my baby's one month old celebration! ;) Hope it will be in time!

Arrival Of My Baby

My baby was delivered last night at 1120pm, at Damansara Specialist Hospital. She weighs 2.7kg, term and Apgar of 9 in 1 minute. The O&G specialist, Dr Guna, who delivered her, was really skillful and slick in his management. I have to thank him, as well as to all the labour room midwives, who were all very nice and helpful. Well, it could be because it's in private, and I am paying thousands for that. But I can tell you that it's well worth paying the money!

The only problem is that, although my paternity leaves start from yesterday (for 7 days), I still have 2 on calls in between which none of my colleagues willing to change with me. So I still gotta go back to on call! That's something very different in terms of working culture here in Klang Valley, compared to where I was back in Sibu! But I think I am adapting quite ok so far -- at least I know that my baby and my wife are fine! Happy enough.

Time Flies

Time flies. It's been a month, and I haven't been updating my blog. Today, I get pm off after a rather busy on call yesterday.

My work
I am slowly adapting to the new hospital I am in. With great colleagues (so far) and nice specialists, really makes a lot of difference for a newbie like me adjusting to the Klang Valley working environment. I must admit that my "Sarawak sentiment" still follows me in my new work place, but overall, I am getting on quite well here.

My house
My new house renovation is about 70% done so far, and everyday without fail, I will drive past my new house to take a peep at the progress. Very exciting indeed. Today you see the empty balcony, 2 days later it's bricked up and becomes part of the top floor.

My friends
A few friends are getting married end of this year, around October till December. So nice to see all my friends finally settle down with their own soul mates, and move on to the next chapter in life. I wish I can attend each and every wedding reception held, or at least I can send the angpow right to their doorsteps. Congrats all my friends!

My baby
I am eagerly waiting for the arrival of my first baby, sometime in early Sept. Just signed up with CryoCord and that cost me RM4500! ;)
(oh please, I don't want to start a debate on the usefulness of cord stem cell, or why CryoCord and not StemLife... you decide what you want to do with your own money anyway! Haha!)
Although I already know the gender of my baby, I am not going to publish it here! Soon you all will find out.

My gadget
I am hoping that the rumour about HP coming out with new gadgets Sept this year, is true. I am hoping there will be a VGA display pdaphone, which doesnt cost me a bomb! I am really a gadget enthusiast; every now and then, I have the tendency to change a new pda or phone. I am still undergoing "behavioural therapy" by my wife (she is pursuing Psych anyway!)

My car
Currently there is only one car for me and my wife; we have booked a new car months ago, but it will not arrive till sometime in Oct. Good also, because by then my new house will be ready and the new car will be just right on time to come -- otherwise no place to park in my parents' house now!

My dream
Will try to finish up the membership exam as soon as possible.

Arrival Of My Cargo Stuff

Finally after a long wait of 15 days, the shipping company called me up today to inform me that my belongings from Sibu will be sent to my doorstep later this afternoon.

Coincidentally, I am at home today, not because I knew that the cargo is arriving, but essentially my food poisoning condition is worsening; had been up since 2am purging away and throwing out undigested food particles (non-bilious, no blood seen)! I think by now I have taken in at least 9 packets of ORS to replace the ongoing losses.

My sister is also having the same problem too -- now I start to wonder if it was the sashimi we took at Shogun on Sunday that has caused all this?!

Anyway, I really hope I can get back to work tomorrow; it's really boring sitting at home being a jobless man! ;( And I can't wait for my car to arrive at my doorstep today!

Life In KL So Far...

Barely one week after reporting duty to my new hospital, I am down with a very bad food poisoning today. Weak I am, but still manage to update my blog in my bed, thanks to the WiFi router (a farewell gift from my Sibu colleagues) and the old-but-faithful laptop.

There are lots of things to learn from my new working environment. Colleagues are so far very nice and helpful. The only one thing that bothers me a lot is the computerised system -- driving me nuts! But what the heck, I still gotta learn up whether I like it or not; and my first call is coming up real soon this week (hope I will be well by then!)

Toll is another issue which I have never encountered back in Sibu. It's really costly to travel everyday, paying not only the petrol, but also the toll fees. My credit card usage has shot up a lot ever since I came back.

Food, on the other hand, has been great in KL. So far, I have been trying out a variety of food, be it Japanese buffet at Shogun, Italian dinner at Pizza Uno and Marco's; Lunch at TGIF, and breakfast at Burger King -- this is something I miss a lot when I was in Sibu. And not forgetting my beloved de-caf Mocha at Starbucks! ;)

I am looking forward to every weekend for a nice dine out with my wife or family members. Now, would my credit card company please increase my credit limit? ;P

Streamyx Speed

Using the Speedometer from TM website, realised that the Streamyx speed in my area is more than 1Mbps! :) I was using the same package back in Sibu, but the best was only around 760kbps. That's quite a lot of difference especially when it comes to loading YouTube or browsing other online videos.