Tired tired tired

We spent the Saturday in inner Ampang where the address was so remote it refused to be acknowledge by the GPS. ( How rude!) I spent the morning speaking chinese and oh boy did that suck the energy right out of my body like a mega strong hoover. I arrived home around 3:00pm and after a bit of late lunch fell asleep on the couch. ( A first for me...and I certainly hope I don't make a habit of this narcolepsy-like behaviour.). I woke up two hours later feeling zombified and ill-equipt for my evening ward rounds. (Bleah!) The company was good that morning, met up with friends and managed to get some lovely pictures as well as some gossip in between all that work. I'm still recuperating by the way. 

Midweek....let's pause to take a breather

Picture is of some of the books bought in 2007.

Logbook

I have been introduced to this delightfully painful subject of logbook for training. And the list of procedures as well as criteria for completion of training has become more comprehensive and the list has grown since I last saw a similar version. This is annoying. It now means I will have to be organized and complete the logbook within the month. The penalty for late completion is a VIVA. Now, the actual gripe I have with this entire matter is the sudden appearance of such a thing less than a month from date of completion. Whose fault is it? The answer: a few people's. I top the list so there's little else I can do but quietly move and on and get ON WITH THE MATTER. Wish me luck folks.( And keep them fingers crossed for me)

Page 169

"The little stranger" is proving to be a different book from the usual stuff I've picked up recently. It is not chic-lit. I suspect it is a horror story which is something I normally stay well away from. Blame it on TIME bookstore and my gravitation towards any books marked down by 25%. Added to that there was one of those round little stickers proclaiming it to be : The TV bookclub best read and at the bottom of the cover was written " shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2009. I dare you to resist! The other books in that section were Susan Boyle's autobiography, Jennifer Weiner's chic lit ( yawn) some self help books and a selection of Asian authors. I've stopped at page 169 mainly because it's gotten to the scary bit. There's a hint of evil powers lurking around Roddy ( one of the characters) as he tries to explain his "symptoms" to Dr Faraday. The other characters are Caroline ( Roddy's sister who's describe as plain with full hips) and Mrs Ayres ( Roddy's mum).They live in "Hundreds" which is one of those old buildings you see in Agatha Christie's whodunnits put to film. Post ward, the building is run down and money is short. I think despite being a book packed with potentially scary bits, I have every intention of finishing it. Why? Simple enough, Sarah Waters writes so brilliantly you have little choice but to answer the pull of her words and read on regardless. Wish me luck.

Parking in Putra Jaya

There is no public car park in parcel E ( a weird name !) which is where the Ministry of Higher Education as well as the Ministry of Health buildings are situated. They're positioned a stone's throw away from each other. And so if you have a seminar to attend at the main auditorium, sandwiched between these two buildings, the logical step would be to park along the main road ON the yellow line. .... together with the many many many other cars lined neatly in a row. Whatever little feeling of uncertainly re breaking the rules disappeared when we asked one of the officers whether this was a done thing. He said usually that is not a problem. He was wrong. We found a nasty little ticket tucked firmly under the windshield wiper upon return. This led ( apart from deep regret) to a spot of driving about looking for the building to pay the fine. After two loops about the place, we found ourselves in the weirdest car park I've ever seen in a while. No spots to be found easily. When we eventually found the building and the officer, I was ready to weep with sorrow at a Monday gone so wrong. We then proceeded to get ourselves thoroughly lost en route back to the city. It was like a bad nightmare where you simply cannot find the way out of a place. After a full hour and a bit, we eventually led the car onto the highway. I do not think I will want to attend any more seminars in Putra Jaya. This trip has aged me significantly. Plus I have aching limbs. I forgot to mention, we got the venue mixed up. The morning started with us parking ( quite a distance ) in Hospital Putra Jaya thinking ( stupidly) that the talk was to be held at the auditorium in the hospital. 

( Picture is of the folks who decide what happens to folks like us..working under them)

I buy a book!

This is my new purchase for the week. ( Sunday is the first day of the week). Picture taken at the bookstore at Plaza Damas. I'm sitting on the floor. The chronic tension type headache has sucked whatever energy reserve I have left leaving me a shell of my usual energetic self. I read the first 18 pages of this book. Yes this is unusual but after the last few disappointing buys I've learnt to be more careful. 

Stink beans

New name for petai. Found in a nyonya recipe book which I gave mum for mother's day. What an appropriate name for petai in English. I guess if you cannot find a new name just translate it into a description of what it smells like. Had an overdose of stink beans this week. Yuck! I'm staying away for a month at least. 

All about what has happened during the wonky internet connection period

1. May the 12th was the brother's birthday. Happy Belated Birthday. Thanks for putting up with all the little sister-annoying pranks back in the dark ages. Hope you had a good birthday.

2. Bible class Thursdays has been thoroughly incorporated into my weekly routine. I checked it's seen 5 months already. Who would have thought I would have made it this far? Mum says at the end of two years...I deserve a medal.

3.I played the violin for the violin teacher's sister's wedding dinner two Sundays back. It was mostly scary but maybe a little bit fun. I didn't need to worry about the vibrato bit, my right hand shook quite a bit when I played. That was embarrassing. I hope nobody caught that on video. ( The camera man sure came close enough )

4. I cleared my study and parted with a lot of of notes. So I have more space to move the books from the kitchen top. I cannot imagine throwing any more stuff away any time soon. Which means, I need to be more selective in my reading material. ( So much for this..I've since bought 3 very boring books. When I bought them they were not boring. They became boring after chapter 4-5)

5. The kitchen tap is leaking.( AGAIN!) The noise annoys me when its quiet. ( Like now)

6.I've lost my ipod touch. It's too painful to eloborate.

7. I bought an evita peroni headscarf for RM89. Daylight robbery but it is rare not to look like an egghead in a headscarf I simply HAD to buy it. Haven't worn it. The possible debut might be this Saturday.

8. I can't get into my cheongsam. Stupid outfit anyway. It doesn't allow you to expand as nature intended.

9. I get headaches more frequently. ( I have one now!)

10. My egg collection obsession on facebook may very well return:)

Happy Mother's Day mummy...

where thou art...that is home.

Wonky wonky wonky internet

I suspect the lightning messed with the modem. I was unable to access gmail and google and basically anything else appeared very slow on the net. Except facebook.( surprise! surprise!) Problem's sorted out. I can now access my gmail and everything else appears to be back to normal. Yay! 

I haven't had much luck with my reading selection lately. "The reading group" by Elizabeth Noble proved to be extremely slow to start and the characters were introduced fairly quickly. Each chapter dealt with a different group of characters. I got some of them mixed up midway. Had to go back and look for who was who. So...definitely not a good start. The reviews promised some shedding of tears. I have to report no tears until the last but one chapter or thereabouts. So that was a disappointment too. Not enough emotional strings being tweaked. 

Next disappointing book was "The family man" by Elinor Lipman. This started off quite promisingly with Henry Archer making contact with his divorced wife Denise. It's a pity the story moved away from this and centered instead on Thalia. Thalia is the Denise's daughter whom he adopted when they were married. And who he gave up custody to when they divorced. So this is about Henry getting a second chance at playing father. Thalia is potrayed as an easy going person who resents her mother, who welcomes henry ( too willingly I thought) and who has a very trusting nature. Story line was a little aimless midway though but the ending was ( predictable yes) acceptable and it ended on a good note. But a sparkling, enchanting infinitely witty novel it was NOT. These reviews should not promise what this book so obviously was not. Aaaargh!

My new book this week is "Life according to Lubka " by Laurie Graham ...and I've also started on "A kid for two Farthings " by Wolf Mankowitz.