24th August

My email inbox  reminds me of the talk I'm meant to be preparing on Heterogeneity of the response of treatment in bronchial asthma. Reminder unnecessary, as korean talk has been a cloud on the horizon ever since it was arranged in early August. If I could plan every detail and moment of the day,  I wouldn't have this feeling of impending doom. Remind myself that it is indeed possible to go on living despite embarrassing self to the max during session, and am able to thank the person who saddled me with this task with appropriate enthusiasm.

The real deal..

I have a short trip to Korea in a few weeks and will be able to sample authentic "bibimbap". The picture above is of a bibimbap done just right for these reasons
1. piping hot. I dislike lukewarm dolsot bibimbaps, eating it is like drinking lukewarm milo
2. The egg must be just on the brink of bursting so when you poke it with your fork it oozes out all over the rice and you get to stir vigorously. Overcooked eggs on bibimbap are sad. Rubbery ones the worst.
3. You must have enough chicken/beef bits. Stinting on these will ensure I do not return for seconds. And I will also warn other people about this.

If we could see the future

Picture is of the niece,...and for the record she did not fall in.( a slightly different story from two years ago)

People MUST eat

There is no such thing as folks giving up their Sunday Spread just because the economy isn't so good. We were seated pretty fast but the service was sadly slow. And the affragato was half its size by the time it got to our table. Not much OOmph.On the up side, my main dish salmon-something I forget the name was absolutely mouth-wateringly good. I'm definitely returning for another go. It won't be on a Sunday though. Slow service spoils any meal. Our seats faced the crowd and we saw KL fashion victims walk by from time to time. Much better than reading any magazine


And today is Friday the 13th. Superstitious? Bah! It was just a day packed with stuffy to do. Unless you count the slowing of brains during noon time which made me crabby. Or the very slight traffic I encountered en route home. Nope! There's nothing sinister about Friday the 13th anymore. I've done away with that:)

Just completed

One of the many lovely illustrations in this book

The Diary of Mr Charles Pooter

MPH has shipped in some vintage classic books and this was bought for RM 29.90 a few weeks ago. Written by George and Weedon Grossmith originally for the famous magazine Punch this was eventually expanded into a novel. The illustrations by Weedon re just the type I love. I've taken a picture of a "Daisy Mutlar" who was transiently Lupin's fiancee in this story. Lupin is the son of the Mr Charles Pooter who is the author of the diary. Lupin has funny ideas and loses his job at least twice in this story but my typing this hardly begins to be justice to the actual words. 

If I could predict the future

I would like to know the exam results. Sadly this is not possible. This is the third exam for me and for a change I got a lady, who spoke very little in between apart from the smile and obligatory phrases examples of which I will list out below

1. You may play your first song now

2.Thank you now we will do some scales..B flat major separate bow, A major slur,C sharp minor melodic slur, dominant 7 in G, DOuble stops...etc

3.Yes perhaps you better do that again ( when I fumbled on one scale BOooHOO)

4.And now we will do aural, ....Take a look at this sheet of music, practise it for HALF a min if you want and play when you're ready ( which would be never for me )

5. THANK YOU

And so the ordeal lasted almost an hour only because I was asked to play many many scales, etc. The student before me was thankfully an adult and a clarinet player. She and the clarinet sat very still in the waiting room whilst I chose to inflict my scales on the poor reluctant audience in the hotel lobby before my turn.

( picture of self when I still had long-ish hair)

23 hours and counting

Okay tomorrow at this time I would be nursing a post adrenaline surge headache. Violin exam is tomorrow afternoon at Hotel Istana which is where the exam was held last year and which is where I played an ENTIRE song out of pitch last year. *shake head* not going to happen this year no way no way. Preparation for this year has been like last year rather shoddy at the beginning and only furious practise sessions lined up the few weeks before. And as in last year, the weeks leading up to the exam were speckled with other essential work-related stuff which kinda mucked up the practise-mode somewhat. And so this am and pm I will be playing the violin intermittently. No point straining the ole wrist at this stage, Everything in moderation and no panicking allowed. I'll be back in business after this weekend. Picture is an old one taken a few years ago when I managed to climb the bridge. Dare to dream! That's the motto.

Procrastination is the thief of time.

Because I was cheated out of a weekend this week was pretty much like a blur. There is little point in moaning further. Suffice to state the obvious which is the header for this post. And now, onto more important issues which is the bloody road block stationed just outside Tung Shin Hospital which caused a slow crawl at half nine yesterday evening. I wonder what all the fuss was about. The police didn't seem terrifically interested in my face so I was waved away by a bored looking chap. There was a little car( I cannot remember the make ...but driven by a rather rude woman ) which narrowedly nip my left wing mirror. And this of course was because the rude woman ( she is no lady ) insisted on merging with my lane despite the very obvious lack of space. The police ( whom I now have confirmed) are unable to multi task failed to see this. Which added to the anger level a bit. No great plans for this weekend except I intend to enjoy being at home in my apartment surrounded by my things and enjoying the time just doing nothing. ( That would probably last all of the 3 hours before I become restless) Wish me luck!

A temporary hiatus from blogging:(

For those of you who follow this blog, you must have realised the long break from any posts. I blame the long list of work which has piled at a steady rate for some weeks now. Anyway despite moaning re lack of time, I found myself at a second hand bookstore yesterday and got two books from it. One of which is a Ruby Ferguson book which surely must be out of print at this stage. The other is by a french author and has been translated to L'englais for us philistines who don't read nor write french. Very exciting to have these two books to read. Yesterday was one of those "GOOD mondays" where everything goes as plan and no major hiccups appear un-announced. It's a real pity we don't get many of these good days in a month.

Mondays generally stink

Image taken from the net.

Today was one of those days, where you start of by being overly ambitious. Which other sane person would plan to see two study patients and sort their problems out before 8:30am in the morning? Nobody!! I forgot to consider the post-weekend sluggishness which made dealing with adverse events and drug dosages slow. Of course it did not help to share the table with 6-7 other study files belonging to another unit and having to pace about looking for the right file and questionnaire. Hrrump. The morning proceeded on in about the same haphazard manner in which it started and I only just about regain my momentum around 3:00pm. There was a decided drop in pace ( very thankful for that ) and here I am now. A testament to my ability to cope with crap on MOndays. Happy Monday folks:)

Work work work work

I have quite a bit of reading to do. And I DO not mean fiction. Picture was taken last week during one of my many feeble attempts to complete my to-do-list. Still the same stuff to do. In the meantime, I've gotten over my procrastinating mode violin-practise-wise. This morning, indeed the good part of today was devoted to playing the scales, arpeggios, dominant sevenths, diminished sevenths, double-stops, chromatic scales and erasing ALL the marks from my scale book and re-writing the fingering. 

As a reward to self, I intend to read "Early days" by Miss Read. Currently at page 91....I certainly feel I deserve some light enjoyable reading-material as bedtime reading. 

Interesting signs from BALI

Picture taken when the taxi came to a temporarily halt at the traffic lights. The names are delightful. My choice would be Lalapan Bebe Sambel Setan. Founds devilishly GOOD.

Peanuts with humour!! Tempting as it was I decided to buy Kacang Mama pedas disco. 

And this *wave hands*....I think would taste like chicken surely. Shaped quite authentically.