Acknowledgement

Hou yeah! my clinical conference is finali over! oh yeah yeah.. it went ok tat day.. except for the part where i can't understand english in foreign accent, in the question and answer session. Funny, another accent (Prof Cutie) corrected the first accent, and i understood! Guess it's bcoz i've been living with d 2nd accent long enuf to grab it. ;)

Here i'd like to make a complete list of acknowledgement, as I didn't get to mention it during the presentation. Here goes... a million thanks to..

Dad, for helping me search high n low for tat horse pic! hahaa.. got it in the end.. n i used both in my presentation.
CLing, FSuen, Jun, Howie, Wyee for being such great organizers..
Dev, CLing, Joanne, Pyin, Ting for your comments on my presentation..
Pyin n kY for the transports.. (to stc n goin2fac)..
Faith for taking my pix n videos.. i truly luv them! =)
Eve, Jun for offering to tapao my lunch.. Joanne for tapao-ing my lunch..
Mr Krishnan for lending the portable mouse.. n HMeng in getting it..
my rotamates - anjas, zu, aboo, lina for ur concern in my preparations..
davies for saving my presentation in ur thumbdrive..

all your little efforts are remembered.. n appreciated.. ;)

Gek Sei Yan LAh!

Gek Sei Yan = Highly irritated.

Jst nw n old man (presumably in his 60s) walked pass my hse, pushing a trolley of old boxes. There went Toffee rushing to the gate to bark at him. To my surprise, tat ol man began walkin stealthily towards my hse, nearing Toffee, holding out a piece of folded paper in his hand, eyes focused at Toffee. Silly toff was protruding his head out of the square grills, barking intermittently. Didn't he have any idea of wat was in the ol man's mind?

I was in the hse sweeping. Having noticed the ol man's vengeful look, i became worried. I dropped the broom, rushed to toffee, at the same time, "Uncle, wat do you want?"

Upon seeing me, the ol man turned back and continued pushing his trolley. I was soOoOoOo agitated! Wat right has he got to walk into my property n beat my dog?! I was really tempted to let Toffee out, scare him off abit. But thinking of the possible aftermath, I just watched him walk away. Worse, I should have shouted, but silence shrouded me.

Gek Sei Yan LAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! gek sei gek sei gek sei yan lah!

Fixed #5

Serdang, 25 March 2002

The weather was a cloudy one, calm, with no signs of thunderstorm. A good omen, perhaps. Sitting on the couch anxiously, she could understand the nervous look in her coursemates, shuttling endlessly in front of her. They were all there for the same reason - external examination. An oral examination, where the foreign examiners were at their respective free will to shoot any kind of question, just as long as it was related to the veterinary field. She had heard from her seniors that some examiners had thrown Year-1 questions, year-2, right to the future in fact. What a small scope to cover, she sighed. She was 5th in line.

"Ken, hey.. Kenneth! do you remember wat's the answer for.."
"Pls, pls.. leave me alone, watever.. not now."
"c'mon.. can u pls quiet down?" Came another voice.
"Shut up won't u?!" Another voice.
"Block-head." Another.

Fretful people walking up and down in front of her. She closed her eyes gently, wrapping her cold palms together. Empty.. emptiness.. is all I need now.

"What d'u mean, too long?" Jack' s voice echoed softly in the emptiness. "It was only 15 months."
"Still too long. I can't stand it! I told you, I could die." She remembered every single word she had retorted.
"Tess... I.. I.." Silence. "I'm sorry."
"Why don't u stop your night-checking calls?" She was shocked. What am I talkin?
"Wat?!"
"I.. i.. well.. maybe.. u should stop these calls.. I'm tired. Er..well.. bored actually."
Being blunt was just Tess, but being this cruel? "Oh.. i should have known." He remembered well everything Bill had told him abt Tess. "Hey y'noe, the first time i held her hand, she smiled! omg.. it was so.. sweet y'noe man.." Bill was his housemate in the states, Tess's Mr. Supervisor.
"What do you mean you should have.."
"It's ok. Bye. Miss you, forever will." He had not wanted to believe everything Bill said, but what Tess just said shook his faith.

And that was it, the last time she had heard of Jack. She had been spending the following 6 months asking God to persuade Jack to call her again. She regretted everything she had said.

But Jack never called. I was cruel, stupid. God punished me right.

He should be back to Malaysia by now.

"You're next, Tess."

A good presentation is..

This morning got up in the wee hours before sunrise.. (7am! gues sum of u might be arguing, "7am is not wee any longer u know! u know wat's wee hours ka?" i know i know..bt it rained, so d sky was stil very dark, tats y literally considerred as wee hours also lah!) the entire body ached, eyes groaning.. but the spiritually-strong gal (tats me!) managed to push her way in amongst the crowd into commuter train at kepong stn, headin to UPM.

Tx to kY for d transports, appreciate it a great deal. ;)

There were 3 talks this morning, held in vet fac, namely on writing project proposal, thesis writing and The dos and don'ts in presentations. I find the 3rd one most general, n thus could b most useful to my readers. So i'll just elaborate on tat la. on 2nd thought, it's a ONE-HOUR talk! (by Pak Sheikh). surely i dn wana clog my blog with jst this. i decide to KISS it.

1. slides' back ground should be dark, with eye-comfy fonts
2. limit the animation n details
3. stand confidently, upright, energetic, smile n RELAX!
4. eye contact with audience
5. tone variation in voice
6. keep to time
7. Remember, ur giving a presentation, NOT A LECTURE! respect ur audience's intelligence.

well.. tat's a gist of it. hopefully u may find it useful. someday. somehow. ;)

psst. KISS = keep it short n simple. :P dun stray..

Fixed #4

"Away too long." Her words kept reverberating in his mind. He couldn't understand it. She had known since the beginning that he'l be away from her 2 years. He remembered it clearly on the night before he departed.

"2 years is still long. I'll die here, alone."
"Hey, look at it this way, this is a 2-year investment. To test our love, and at the same time, to upgrade ur hubby-to-be into a Master, and i mean masterrrr!" They had laughed n giggled, but towards the end...

"Promise me that you'll wait for me." Silence.
"Let's just let destiny decide."

Her answer had shooked him. He did not blame her. 2 years is probably too long for someone as attractive as Tess. Meanwhile, a 2-year scholarship in MBA by JPA was too lucrative to reject. She could have found another guy who'll be the perfect hubby-t-be instead. She could have married within the 2 years instead... She could hav..

"Jack!"
His door slammed open. He turned around. It was Chen, a sweet, vibrant lady from Singapore at her early 30s rushing in, as usual, without any sense of privacy to him.
"Er.. u alrite, hoh?"
He stared at her. She could have respected his privacy a little bit more. His stare gradually turned into a glare.

"Eiyo.. come on la.. dun look at me like tat lea.. i plomis la.. no mo rush in.. i knok da door nes time ok? hou mou? guai guai la..."
He choked into laughter. Her accent was a natural sense of humour on its own.

"There's an emergency..." He quickly grabbed his medic suitcase and rushed out of the room. Chen trailing behind, "err 28-ye-ol womanl.. km247 of.. err crush between 2 trucks.. run away.. er bleedin.."

He jumped into the ambulance which is already waiting. Chen followed suit, no sign of "full-stop" from her. The siren sang. He closed his eyes.

Are all these necessary? He had been volunteering as night shift paramedic, partnering with Chen for almost a year now. He had wanted to make full use of his emergency knowledge and skills.. making everyday count.. just as Tess had always wanted him to... Living a hustle bustle life.. attending classes at days, emergencies at nights..

But are all these what he wanted? What he really wanted?
He wanted Tess. That, he know for sure.
He had always known that.

touched *

last thu was doin surgery, real slow.. first, my group brought the dog in last. 2ndly, we prep last. undoubtedly, we started surgery last. To make things worse, i made a super huge incision, which means a super longer time to suture them close later. :p Expectedly, we didn't finish all 5 procedures that we're supposed to do.. nevertheless.. i was stil ok.. coz i was all drained out by then.. all my energy was exhausted from cutting, dissecting, and suturing.. (funny, my mood was still on the "on" mode) gosh.. so it was actuali a blessing in disguise for me, tat we're slow. ahem!

then at 8pm, when the *cute surgeon urged us for the 5th time, "Aiyo, Group 1.. haven't finish ar?" we were suturing (closin up) the neck then.

U know, he'd been roarin in the clas earlier with the almost-same phrases, "Aiyo.. group 1! u finished already ar? y is everyone lookin so relaxed?" "Aiyo group 1 ar.." "aiyo.." "aiyo.." ironically, the more i looked at him with that surgery cap on, the more i wanted to hug him! so cute!

anyway, by 8pm, Dr Cutie had left, we're stil closin up the neck, leavin the other 2 procedures untouched. Then Ms scrub nurse came, "are you happy with just this?"

omg! she actually was willing to stay up, probably until 10pm, if my group had wanted to continue the surgery!!!!

omg.. i wished i could hug her then, but i was apparently "sterile".. it was.. just herself. She used to scratch me off my nerves before, but then.. tat's bcoz she's sum1 who has high expectation on students. Tat's just her. But i've got my hats off for her.

Very direct. Sharp tongues. Fatal words. But all the same, with a pure, kind, big-hearted, hopeful intention in mind, "For my students, i will."

Luv ya, Puan. ;)