a little Xtra

Buddha’s Day.

I’m SOOOOO HAPPY!!! Haha.. don’t worry pple. I’ wasn’t stressed out by Buddha’s day, I am stressed at my back lock of work. But Buddha Day was wonderful! I guess coz I’ve managed to establish more affinity with the pple at the temple, that ‘s why it was so much more enjoyable this year. The devas were definitely looking after us, the weather was gorgeous.

Sat: I was stuck at the info booth instead of the yin2 shui3 san 1 qian1 exhibition where Voon Yee and I should have been at. But I was grateful for my chance to come forward and actually talk to ppl about my religion and introduce them to the wondrous Dharma!!! Like Flynn was saying… “ WE ROCK!” haha.. I was amazed at the interest of soo many ppl who came up to us and took the pamplehts and books and their generosity! .. most actually donated quite a bit w/o any invitation. There you go! Buddha nature in all! After reading the autobiography of Master Xing Yun, founder of Fo guang shan… amazing dude! I was quite moved by the page where the youths of Ilan town in Taiwan followed the master on bikes to propagate the Dharma..I wanna do that! I thot to myself. I want to share with ppl what this means to me, to us.. Well, we kinda did that I guess haha during our bike trip.. but this was the first time I actually got to talk to ppl about my religion, and I relished the chance. J

Went for lunch with Joan and Voon Yee… yum! Vegetarian food.. seriously, it’s good. And I met Miao Yu Fa shi!!!! I nearly screamed with delight and hugged her when I saw her. Luckily I managed to keep my feelings under control, wouldn’t look too good if I went bonkers in the info booth. J but I was soo happy to see her! I missed her sooo much when she transferred to yarraville. Trudy pointed to me the way to Buddhism, but it was Miao Yu Fa Shi who opened the door for me. She encouraged me, listened to me, helped me grow and intergrate Buddhism into my life. She radically made changes to the temple, the whole YAD group,formalized the translation team, the library, our lessons and discussion group and she opened my heart to the Dharma and the Buddha. She gently guided me in making Buddhism part of my life .. Humanistic Buddhism.. she showed me it’s meaning. She showed me the meaning of self confidence, the meaning of selflessness and the meaning of being able to rise up to challenges. In my time in Melbourne, many revs have been in charge of the city temple, but it was rev. Miao Yu who became my mentor ..



Sunday:

Excited! Offering ceremony. Ok. My costume was n’t as nice as the other Du Huang troupe, or the Ge gE or the Korean ones.. but it was an interesting experience wearing it and er.. the hair was really over the top. Lion dances, dragon dances! The prayers… I felt to happy as we chanted the prayer for peace and the xing jing! It was sooo wonderful standing there with all my fellow Dharma brothers and sisters .. all prayer for the same thing.. all experiencing the timelessness of the Buddha’s teachings of compassion and love for all sentient beings. After that.. it was phototime!!! Went a bit mad here.. haha.. Then back to the Cloud and water exhibition. Master Xing yun is one cool dude! It is amazing how much he has achieved in 50 years.. Angel and Julie actually came down to see the Buddha Day fest.. showed them around …

Spent the rest of time babysitting the lovely… Chantel!!! J haha hot chocolate and French fries and watching SQ entertain her with his rubber band magic tricks. I think you ‘d be rubbing your eyes.. XL babysitting???!!!! But seriously, she’s sooo cute, you’ll fall in love with her the moment you laid your eyes on her..

Then down for lunch with the sand bottle store.. we sold out!! Business was sooo good. Looking at the happy faces of the children getting their bottles and their balloons… it really reminds me how important bringing joy to other ppl is.. Yup.. J the Bodhisattva path.. bringing joy to others.. :P and creating good affinity!!! Whether it be the offering ceremony, screaming.. “ CURRY LAKSA!!!” or just speaking to ppl about the Dharma.. it was really delightful..

The afternoon finished off with singing. Ok.. I went incredibly off pitched.. but I really enjoyed it. It was incredible.. just singing for that crowd of ppl.. and for the ppl who came down to support me.. THANK YOU!!! And singing with the choir.. I was sooo happy. I miss that feeling.. I missed that pre performance jitters.. post performance high of choir days.. Gosh.. so happy!!! Get to sing , perform and propagate the Dharma!!!! I couldn’t thank the Buddha enough. J


The performances were fantastic.. dancing.. can can.. some Columbian dance.. it was a great Buddha’s day.. So sad I won’t be around for it next year.. L I wanna wear the ge ge zhuang.. ahhhhh. Viviana!!! Hint hint..

Na mo Sakyamuni Buddha!

Happy Vesak day everyone!!!!


Post vesak day..

Met up with some BLIA members for dinner on Monday night. Thanks SQ for calling me along.. I had an awesome time.. but I must say. I was clean worn out by our darling Chantel .. J she’s sooo cute. See her photo.. haha.. but voon yi and I were left tied together by her.. she wouldn’t let us go.!

It’s a bit queer. The feeling of eating with the BLIA>. I felt like I was in Singapore.. going for a reunion dinner.. only thing was that I wasn’t the kid anymore.. I was the adult.. Playing with chantel.. .. I felt really really old.. My fren had to drive home the point when on the way home he started talking about his wedding.. I stared incredulously at him for a mmt.. He was only a few years older than me.. Marriage??Kids??? My head spun.. Then I realized something.. I wasn’t young anymore.. I was 21 this year.. This was another part of my life.. guess i've to get use to it

Lizhen, me and the rest of the BLIA Sand bottles pple. . WE sold out all teh bottles at 2pm!!! then we started advertising CURRY LAKSA!! LELONG LELONG LELONG!!!! 

Alvin, Cat, Andy, CHANTEL ( CUTE ALERT!!!) Alan, Yue li, can't recall his name, and SQ..  

With the BLIA at the Vegetarian restaurant at South yarra. Voon Yee, Ding wei, Fonny, Huiling, Suat Chin, Ming yan and me. ( from left to right) 

Chui ting conducting the BLIA Hym group! Singing Cloud and stars.. paiseh, the song just now was Harmonise.. argh.. haha..  

Performing " Cloud and Stars" ( from left).. Jeff, SQ, moi and Gina. 

We ( the du huang dance troupe) grabbed a lovely Ge Ge .. 

My mentor Venerable Miao Yu , picture of Master XIng yun and me at the ying shui san qian exhibition. 

Dragon dance at The opening ceremony.. Awesome..  

Sandwiched betwen the lovely aimin and the hunky hubert.. Wearing a Duhuang dancer's costume.. i swear.. i felt like i was out of a ABBA movie. I loved the kimonos and the ge ge zuang.. VIVIANa!!!! I wanna be a Ge2 Ge4! 

Buddha Day celebrations at Fed square. This was an awesome service. The feeling was just awesome.  

BLIA Melb YAD division.. Check up the babes in the DU huang zhuang.. haha.. and the dragon dropping in at the back. 

Clinical visit no. 2


It was another unforgettable experience. I saw the usual wide range from gastroenteritis, to parkinsons, to a lady with subclinical fragile X syndrome, to HCOM ( hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy), to osgood’s disease, psorasis, sciatica made another appearance, to encopresis ( fecal incontinence in children) , to depression and anxiety, to abducent nerve palsy to calcified cyst in the ovary!!!!

Dr. TV was fantastic as usual. I got to perform the usual tests, give differentials, interview and examine patients on my own.. and YEZ. I gave the pneumococcal vaccine. The needle was bloody big. Bigger than life.. bigger than the arm that was being presented. The victim was a frail, but cheerful old Chinese lady. .

“ Gan gan da!!” she cheered me. “ Bu yong jing”

she was brave, she didn’t even flinch when I stuck that grossly huge needle into her arm. The guy I injecte dlater that day gave a large yelp when I stuck that into his arm. ( spraying the doctor in the process because I pressed the plunger b4 delievering the injection)

She was wonderful. Dr TV smilingly handed me her case file to write up the entire case because the couple spoke mostly Chinese. “ You be the doctor,’ he chuckled. “I’ll sit back .” So I actually managed to practise my Chinese med interview!!! Seriously, saying meningitis and pneumococcal in my supposed mother tongue took plenty of miming, plenty of broken chinese and plenty of smiles from both sides. It helped that her husband was a doctor in china so I just had to describe the vaccination given once every 5 years and he got the idea.

They were such a lovely couple. I actually got quite excited when I saw them in the waiting room. And before we saw them, Dr TV leaned to me and asked.. “ Do you speak Chinese well? Coz the next couple speaks in Chinese, and I hope you can help me out there.”

I was very very very delighted that I had to chance to interview in Chinese and they were really relieved that they could converse in their mothertongue.. Dr TV? He was super glad he didn’t have to ring the interpreter. I found it challenging… medical terms just didn’t seem to have an equivalent in Chinese.. I was searching for the word for phlegm, for sneeze, for amoxycillin … LOL.. but we got thru it fine. Dr TV was amazed at the differences in the Chinese dialects. “ During our morning coffee break, I told him of the different dialects and gave him a example of the same phrase spoken in canto, hokkien and Chinese. Yeah, pretty amazing how our mother tongue has dev. Into so many diff dialects.

“ Mother tongue,” Dr TV laughed. “ That’s what your mother speaks to you, not a designated language.” I was trying to explain the Singpaore education system to him. Well… looks like English is my mother tongue than.. LOL.

. Dr. TV may have been stumped by Chiense but he sure was great at other languages.. I knew he could speak both greek and Italian. What I didn’t know was he was equally good at Spanish. I couldn’t figure what language it was until I heard him say “ Por Favor.”

And there was this cute little old lady whom the doctor left me to do a health assessment on. Trying to interview her was an interesting experience. She kept delving into long stories.. but she kept me in fits… in the end, we ended up talking about chocolate.. LOL.. ahhh. The vices of womanhood. She kept ribbing the doctor, winking at me half the time.

I got to see more of the psychosocial side of med this time… I got to see a mother at her wits end at her child’s encopresis. I nearly cried actually, during that interview. She was really at the edge. Nope xL.. can’t get involved.. it’s a job it’s a job. If you can’t deal with it, you can’t do the job well.. but it was hard not to let your heart ache for what the young child was going thru.. for wat the mother was going thru. Dr TV was really the epitome of greatness. He was warm, kind, understanding.. he gave such wonderful advice! It wasn’t just med advice, it was that that came from a person who had seen the world and it’s ppl and who knew what the hearts of little old ladies, desperate moms and dads, and confused little children yearned for.

I got to see the depressed patient.. with parkinsons… whose wife was in hospital at death’s door, and who didn’t know how to cope with his disease and with just living.. Dr TV took me on that home visit. Looking at the poor old man shuffling with the parkinsonian gait, respond positive to a labella tap, and basically just crying with exasperation and sadness… I wished I could do more to help. But even tho’ Dr TV tried to persuade him to have meals on wheels, he still refused.
“ we can’t force them to,” Dr TV said, as we drove away..” We can advise them to, force them to accept treatment only when they’re deemed mentally incompatent, but if they are mentally sound and refuse treatment, you have to let it go.”

“ Been to Preston market?” he asked.

“ Huh?” I looked out of the window.

“ Goodness!! You’ve never been to preston market???” He turned into the parking lot.

We left preston market a while later with me happily munching on the sushi and rice paper roll he bought for me. We discussed communist politics on the way back to the clinic.. “ good system, “ I commented. “ idealistic but it never works..no motivaton for the ppl”

“ All man are equal,’ he quoted.” But some more than others.”

The afternoon continued with even more fascinating cases. Guess what time I left. 8pm. Yeah. Crazy. But I really couldn’t draw myself out of there. And it was worth it!!! Because the last cases were craizily interesting.

The abducens nerve palsy was freaky. The doctor told the pt to head for st vincents IMMEDIATELY. The lady had a protestic valve in too.. I was trying to describe the heart sounds to Dr TV.. “ Er.. Lubbbbbbb dub .. luuuurrrrrrrrrrbbbbb Grrrrrrrrr dub.” The patient was pretty amused. HCOM showed up the last.. I think I heard enuff weird heart sounds to last me the day. “ Lub.. swish! “ “ Lub swish!” The gal looked at me quizzically as I ‘lubed “ and “swished” my way through that description.

Dr TV gave me a lift back to the city. When I thanked him for it, he said.. “Gosh, it’s the least I can do afte ryou stayed back so late.. “ He even offered to come for my performance on Sunday..
I’m gonna miss clinicals sooo bad.. I wanna go everyday… 3 times is waaaaay too little.. ahhhhh… Waaaaaaaaaahhh. I love Dr. TV, his patients and the practise manager sooo much.. all his patients kept praising him. One pt summed it all up. As she walked towards the open door, she looked gratefully at the doctor and said to me.. “ This Dr T, he doesn’t just heal your body.. he heals your soul.”

It’s just a stage he’s going thru.

They say that Melbourne is the capital of Culture down under. I haven’t really seen any shows that bear testimony to that statement yet. The closest I probably came to savouring it was Moomba festival. But the country is alive with talent. You see it in the buskers on the streets: The ubiquitious guitarists, the guy with the dog on Bourke street singing.. “ how much is that doggy in the window..”, the African drummers I see on my way to Temple every Saturday, the little gal with the electric guitar by Elizabeth street, the lady with accordian, the fire juggler by Yarra river…. It’s an incredible melting pot of talent.

I went to watch some of the free shows from the comedy festivals. There was this dude dressed like someone out of an Adam’s Family show trying to make ppl laugh. Well, he wasn’t really that hilarious, but the audience was utterly supportive. They laughed, squealed, cheered him on and enthusiastically responded to his slapstick antics. Kudos to the little volunteer who kept the audience in fits by messing up the comedian’s routines.

Aussie humour? I like the American humour, don’t really get the ozzie jokes sometimes. So some of the jokes by the next standup comedian left me scratching my head and muttering.. “ hey?”

The next act was great. The moment I saw 3 guys and 2 guitars, I perked up. They were called Tripod. They were soooo spontaneous and natural. And their parodies… they just kept everyone in fits. Even while they were subtly trying to preach Christianity to their audience, they did it in such a hilarious way that the audience lapped it up. Hmm.. if I only we had enough talent and spontaneity to do that next week when my group gets to use that very same stage. But I doubt that the Abbess would be impressed tho’.
A group of oblivious passersby merrily sauntered across the space between the audience and the performers , eliciting yaps of annoyance from the 3 comedians. The passersby grinned and waved back.

“ Never mind them, “ one of the comedians said. “ It’s just a stage they are going through.”

I was literally freezing my ass off sitting on the ground, but it was worth it. I loved their harmony.. the guitar.. the jokes . Reminds me so much of the time I watched Toxic Audio. ( and drooling over the lead vocal percussinist.. all together now… “Paaaaaaaaaaaulllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!” I hear an echo from my fellow rabid fan in Cambridge. I’d better stop here, b4 I reawaken the latent crush for that cute hunk.. ARGH)

We hurried inside to catch a couple of short films. Stumbling over rows and rows of occupied seats and legs ( and eliciting tsking and yelps from the inevitably squashed toes), we managed to locate seats in the crowded auditorium in Federation square. Some of the films were quite duh, I didn’t’ understand some others… some were downright hilarious. Apparently it was actually a competition or smth. Most of the seats were occupied by judges .. Something I only found out after we hurried off. Whoopz, I hope I didn’t step on the wrong toes.

I was supposed to catch another stand up comedian, but the tix were sold out. So ah well. But I’d definitely give the melb comedy festival another shot.

I didn’t realize how beautiful Fed square actually looks at night when there are festivities. I hope Buddha’s Day will look equally good, if not better! With the ferris wheel at the back, the acts on the stage, the ppl mingling around, the church bells incessantly ringing ( much to the amusement of us and the irritation of the performaners)

Caught the movie Hitch. I didn’t really think it was that great a show. Nonetheless, it was not bad a show. The lines were witty, and Will Smith was perfect for the role of Alex Hitch, this dude who made a living out of creating opportunities for the hopeless of the male species to gain a foothold in the competitive, the dangerous and the daunting dating game. I love the part where Hitch picked up the cynical female lead . He sorta danced in and out of reading her bitter and cynical mind, teasing her slightly and leaving her curious to find out more.

I think that female lead reminds me tons of myself. . The female heart is a dangerous thing to possess. It’s so weak, so easily swayed, so easily broken. Blame it on our hormones. We’ve gotta protect ourselves.. so that’s why we lay on the layers. Fortify ourselves.. guard and cacoon ourselves.


the only other thing on my mind was... OMG. Imagine all the CMV and EBV transmission during filming. and OMGOMGOMG.. TYPE ONE HYPERSENSITIVITY!!!!!! the perfect example of it too!!!

hai.. mebbe it's just a stage i'm going thur :)

Maybe I’m cynical, pessimistic, bitter.. whatever. I dun wanna go thru all the reasons or the memories.. they’re too painful, too skin crawlingly embarrassing to dredge up. But when I look back, I have to shake my head and attempt a sigh and a laugh at those times. I was so silly then. Some lessons strike you hard and fast … and you learn from them. Too bad I didn’t heed the warning so many times b4.

It’s such a delicate balance. It’s like A chess game. You play it with all you’ve got, there ain’t a time limit, but every move you make it’s timed. Concoct assumptions, and make your decisions.. sacrifice your pieces.. sacrifice bits of yourself.. make yourself vulnerable.. fortify yourself. Make your move. Take a risk.

Lose the game.

I’ always seem to lose too many pieces, to make the wrong strategies. I can’t read my opponent. Inexperience? Maybe. But we all have to start somewhere. I wanna slam down the clock and walk off. I should have done so many times before.. but I chose to play the game to the end. I chose to sit and watch the devastation creep across the board … Checkmate. Game over.

Another challenger throws down the gauntlet.. Why, oh why do I pick it up?!

SEriously, even if you win, the pieces will be rearranged, back to the squares.. back to the beginning.

The utter chaos of the previous games still haunt me. I lift up the Pawns and hesitantly push it forward. I am aware of cheering from ppl around me.. I understand their support.. I wanna thank them for their encouragemnt..but i feel the confusion eating me inside out. they 'll never realise that the internal pressure is suffocating enough. I'm drowning.. i'm drowning inside out. .. THey don't feel my reluctance and apprehension at moving the next pawn.


The move is countered. I don’t wanna play anymore.. I just wanna leave. Why did I even sit down in the first place. Because I was asked to? How silly. Because I can’t resist the temptation of a challenge??
The honour.. the prestige.. the gnawing feeling of guilt that you should have tried something..

“ Your move, XL”

I can’t see ahead, I dunno where this game is going.. There’s not much time anyway,.. see the clocks? They say it doesn’t matter, but if its doesn’t’ why do they time the games anyway?
I just wanna go back to the times where I didn’t know how to play…life was so much easier then.

Knowledge is empowerment.. but it’s danger. I wanna go back to the age of innocence.

I can’t see the final piece.. mebbe I never will.. mebbe I shouldn’t even try.

I just had one of the best experiences of my life J no.. it wasn’t bungee jumping , it was :

GIVING AN INJECTION.. haha ( ok. I gave 2 actually)

I can see you rolling your eyes. But hey, there’s a first time for everyone and this was first time I wasn’t on the receiving end of the needle. SO there we were, one brave man with his shirt sleeves rolled up, one very accommodating doctor and one very nervous but excited med student.

“ You sure you’re alright with me doing this?” I asked as Dr. T.V. handed me the needle.

Pt X nodded firmly. “ I always welcome beautiful ladies ,” He said with a grin.

Note : if there was a way to give a painless injection, I would have used it with this man..

Dr. TV demonstrated the technique. Hestitantly, I cleaned the site, blanched the skin with my fingers and stuck the needle in.

X’s face crumbled into a momentary grimace. I quickly pushed the plunger and lifted the needle free of its target. Feeling triumphant, I then skipped off to the dustbin.

“ ah ah ah… In the sharps container,” Dr. TV pointed across the room.

It was a brain wrecking day for me. Bits of knowledge acquired from the past semesters had been thrown out because my cortical and hippocampal neuronal circuits had ( as a patient described her eyesight) gone CAPUT! Dr. TV continuously quizzed me and challenged me. I examined patients, came up with differential diagnosis, ran through lab test and suggested treatment and diagnostic measures. Half of what I was saying was probably wrong, but Dr. TV was very encouraging. He taught me to be certain. Even if I missed the answer by a mile, every mistake was a chance to learn. I just realized how bad my surface anatomy was. I went for the leg when he asked for a radial pulse. ( anyway, the patient didn’t have a radial pulse, coz his artery was taken out for a bypass)

I liked Dr TV the moment he walked in through the door and shook my hand. He was a dignified yet friendly and warm person with a mischievious twinkle in his eyes. He reminded me of a kindly grandpa who knew every single kid in the neighbourhood.

The nurse had me worried for a moment because she informed me that half the patients only spoke Greek. Well.. she failed to say that half of the rest spoke Italian. But the patients were wonderful. Even when we couldn’t communicate, they were willing for me to probe them, subject them to clumsy blood pressure taking and other uncomfortable examinations.

General practices was nothing like I imagined. I was expecting an endless stream of colds and flus.. but what I was hit with was a wave of cases that lept out of my textbooks and rained upon me.

Siatica, tennis elbow, diabetic retinopathy, cataract, warts, pulled muscles, HSV-2, Pb poisoning, Thyroid adenoma, heart block, ulcerative colitis, celiac sprue, liver dysfunction, dementia, and “ supra tentorial cerebella lesions aka “ just in the mind.” ( MOM!!! You’ll be nodding your head on this one), pill prescriptions, warts, wart like legions, congenital derformatives, livers, high cholesterol… Patients! Test results! Examination results!.. I had to recall the facts, put in the symptoms and the context and clock out a diagnosis, a test or a treatment. Couldn’t do it half the time, but the patients and Dr TV helped me along.


There was a patient who let me peer into eyes for 10 minutes. I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to see. I kept telling Dr TV I saw something black. I kept thinking that I had to see the red reflex. Actually, I was seeing what I was supposed to see all along. I was too afraid to tell the Dr because I was looking for something “typical”

“ In med, you’ve to describe what you see, not what you’re supposed to see, “ the doctor told me kindly.

The lady was sooo wonderful.. She described to the nurse outside..

“ oh.. and that student was such an angel.. “

seriously, I know that having a strong light focused into your eyes is extremely uncomfortable and even more is having someone right up in front of your face. if it was me, I’ll be probably cursing and swearing at that stupid med student who had no inkling on wat to find.


“ you’ve got to learn dear, “ one of the patients ( a frail old lady mind you!)_ patted my hands as I tried to take her blood pressure for the umpteenth time. She let me wrap it around again, tho’ I knew that at point of time, her arm had most probably gone numb.

. DR TV actually trusted my blood pressure readings, the visual acuity tests I graded and my clinical examination reports. True, he followed up when I messed up the readings, but as the afternoon wore on, I gained more confidence in strapping on the sphygnomanometer and getting the readings. At the end of the day, instead of holding the instrument as though it was a rattle snake poised to attack, I welcomed the opportunities to use it.

He took me along to a nursing home visit.

“ Are you volunteering for this?” I asked.
” Where they need me, I go… “ he laughed. “ That’s a doctors job.. where we are needed we go!”

The nursing home was little ditzy for me.. coz it was .. literally All greek to me. They conversed totally in greek. But I got to see a pt with hemiplagia and oh.. clonus!!! And on the drive there, I had a conversation with Dr TV about euthanasia, ethics, doctor patient relationships, paternalistic approach and imposing my morals on patients…

“ Even if the stinkiest, most filthy person walks in through your door.. you’ve to treat him like a king. When you practise, you’ve to do so with your conscience behind you. You’ve to show them care, but you’ve to also stop yourself from showing them too much care, coz this will cloud your judgement. It’s a balance you’ve to strike.”

“ You’ve to be careful about imposing your morals on other ppl. You’re there to prevent harm. You can educated them, treat them and help them but you can’t dictate what they have to do..” he said when I asked for his opinion about the case on Today Tonight where the GP refused to prescribe the pill to a 16 year old gal despite approval from her mother. “ Coz if you refuse to give her the pill, she could still go and have sexual intercourse anyway”

And of course my fav topic about the interstitial sex nuclei in guys was broached when we discussed patient –doctor intimacies.

“ Male docs have to watch themselves, women docs are less likely land in that mess,” he chuckled. I told him the anecdotal evidence of the brain scans of the guys. “ That’s true, “ he said. “ For ladies… sex is of least importance, but for the men! Ah..that’s all that matters. Everything else can just go right out of the window.”

“ go watch beautiful mind… “ he told me as we walked back to the clinic. “ It’s potrays schizophrenia to such a depth.. it took me 2 screenings to appreciate its true beauty. But there ‘s a quote that’s priceless, Nash told a blonde bombshell.. ‘ let’s just skip the whole dating, you’re so beautiful bull shit and go mix our juices.. “”

( see even the nobel price winner also exhibits the classic sex –visual stimulus –sex reflex of the male subtypes of our species)


It was a huge demand on the faint memories my brain held of Neuro, of gastro, of Cardio , skin , immuno and endocrine systems. I saw every single thing my ICM books had coughed up, but yet, it was like seeing all these abnormalities in a whole different way. I diagnosed a patient with sciatica and jumped with joy when Dr TV nodded his approval.

Some patients were really cute. They gave me hints along the way when Dr TV tested me. Like the one who kept doing a tennis ball serve to hint to me her condition of tennis elbow when Dr. TV was grilling me for a diagnosis. Another patient discretely pointed out a sore spot for me and appropriately grimaced and yelled when the Dr asked me to elicit the site of inflammation. I resisted the urge of giving them a high five.

I learned the art of pantomiming out symptoms to communicate with the patients who spoke no English. Grimacing, showing a thumbs up…

“ Sign language!” Dr TV said, when I asked him about how to cross that obstacle.” Lots of sign language! Speak Slowly, clearly and ARTICULATE properly.”


“ Do a neck exam on her,” He pointed at the patient in front of me.

I had not a faintest idea how to approach a neck exam. I stared at the neck. It looked abnormal, but I couldn’t quite place my finger on the abnormaility. I palpated the area. I suspected a lump, but wasn’t quite sure. I told him my suspicions. “ Cystic or solid?” he asked me. “ Cystic , “ I said uncertainly, after affirming wat the term meant. “ You sure? “ he asked. “ Yez, “ I said firmly. ( I had to take a gamble)

“ Well.. you’re right, “ he passed me the test report. “ The lab techs couldn’t make it out either. It’s a cystic lump with an adenoma ( solid) in it.”

Yeah, I had to make a decision. Looking stupid was an option. The yield? It was priceless.

I was hugely reluctant to leave but the sun was hovering around the horizon.. hai.. why does it have to be autumn..??? and I had to make my way to the train station to catch the vehicle back to the city.

It was an excellent first visit.. hope the rest will be just as great :) I love it so much, I don’t mind traveling the distance.. alas! If only we had it once a week instead of fortnightly :P

Can't believe the hols have passed. GROAN. so many things i wanted to do, so little i have accomplished. But nonetheless, it was a good break. Was in teh temple the whole day today. Morning till evening.. normally, i'll be itching to go back home at about 3pm coz my work beckons.. but these days, there's smth that's keeping me there ...

Yeah.. you've guessed it.. it's music.

GOod cause and conditions have allowed me to find pple with similar interest at teh temple. Today we were practising for Buddha day. SO COOL!!!! Damn we sound good. ok. mebbe i'm biased. But i feel really honoured to be able to lias with all these ppl. My gosh. Flute, guitar, keyboard, music students.. fantasic vocalists.. composers.. you name it, we have it. But above all, it's the music and our love for the Dharma that really binds us together. Even little Chantel was there :)

So funny, SQ and I were screaming.. " JEFFERY> WO MEN YONG YUAN ZI CHI NI!!!" ( in falsettos) but seriously, Jeff did a very convincing pop star rendition of the Stars and CLouds.. haha.. oh no.. hopefully we won't frighten him away.. we soooo need him.


Watched a documentary on Master Xing Yun. Awesome fella. In such a short time, he helped spread Buddhism so widely!!! Well.. documentary was punctuated by loud balloon pops from the balloon team.. :) they 're getting pretty good! i also wanna learn, but i suck at this kinda thing.. sadly. so i'm stikcing to sand bottle making :) mebbe i should try candy floss making. BUt the thot of walking around covered in pink candy floss from a mishap doesn't sound appealing.

don't wanna go back to school. sigh. want .. more .. holidays.

My strawberries, pancakes with ice cream. a little too sweet for my taste but looks yummy doesn't it?  

flipping pancakes.. wasn't great. but i suppose it was smth new.. ( in the dandenongs) 

Charlie and the choc factory? nah.. just a sweet shop in dandenongs with a sweet gal.. ( ahh.. bu yao lian) 

ROck and ROll....



XL catches the tram down to domain interchange. Waits for eons but Red hot Cold Turkey doesn't show up. After getting a call from the flustered but trussed up RHC turkey, XL gets aboard tram 67.. with no idea where the hell her destination is.

XL leans over and ask the tram driver..
" Er.. i wanna go to chapel street. where do I get off?"

" Here."" HEre??? but i just got on!!!!"

( points to the street ahead) " that's chapel street"

" ..... "

Suddenly cute guy sitting in front of XL looks up.
" I'm going to chapel street too. WHere u headin?"

" I"m goign to this dance school on Chapel street.. i just have no idea wheere the hell it is."

" I"m heading there too!"

XL stares at him in disbelief.

" United styles?"
" yeah"

Ok.. so there are miracles. XL sents a silent prayer of thanks to the Boddhisattvas for sending this dude down.

" Any idea wehre to get off?"
" er.. no. I'm from Brisbane."

Great.

" you guys wanna get off at tram stop 37."
Both of us glanced quizzically at the speaker.

Well. saved. thank goodness for the nice, vocal ppl in melbourne. I swear if i were in singpoare. i would be probalby still craning my neck for htat elusive stop in the dark even tho' half the ppl on board knew where my destination was.

Cute guy's name was simon and he was a dancer.
" Just came from an event in Brisbane," he said excitedly. " You a B gal?"

huh? I'm a gal. thanks. not a Boy.

" break dancing.. do you break?"

no.. hmm. if i tried, i would be break arming. not dancing i suppose.
anyway, do gals break dance?

" of course!" he fished into his bag for a video cam. and shoved it under my nose. THe screen sprang to live with a b dance battle. First contestant.. a gal.

OK. XL is inspired. but i've a gut feeling my mom won't be tho'.

" you going for dance class?"

" er.. no. just came in from brisbane, got no place to stay, figured i'll head to united styles."

" oh"

I 'd just runned into the new generation of kids. THe carefree dancers who had no destination in mind. THey just flocked where their art called. it was the old hippie style.

" so what style do you do?"

" er.. hiphop... popping," i said sheepishly, feeling inadequate about my meagre dancing background. " Just started"
Ok. tha'ts a lie. i've been jumping around for 2 years now but haven't really got the time to really pursue it.. hai. like so many other things. Drawing, guitar, singing..ARGH. so many things i love to do and to pursue. i'm barely jugging them. i'ts sad.

" I've been Bdancing for 3 years," he said enthusiasticlly.

The tram inched agonisingly forward. At this rate, i could forget about going for Locking class.

"our stop," B boy said.

We got off and headed up chapel street. I located the chapel building with graffitti on the side. United styles dance studios.. supposedly the best in Australia.

The class ahd already started but the instructor allowed me to join in. Locking.. hmm. it's a totally diff style for me to learn. Kinda old.. think a bit robotic.. it lacked the many wierd body rolls that characterised popping or the fluid, sexy style of hiphop. It involved alternating between intricate wrist roles and sharp halts where we "locked" or abruptly stopped our motion. I didn't really like it truth be told. but it was interesting. Only thing was my sprained ankle was complaining big time. and my knees were hurting from the constant kneeling down on the floor. It was fun tho'. coudln't really catch the last part coz it got a little complicated.

Only thing was the ventilation was terrible.. and when the ventilation is terrible.. Xtra L feels Xtra terrible. Wanted to stay for hiphop.. but i knew if i stayed any longer.. Mcchicken was gonna make a reappearance on the dance floor. So i left.. Sorry RHC turkey .

Got on the tram back. Now.. this was weird.. Xtra weird.

I was trying to catch my breath and tryin not to puke when suddenly a sinister voice growled over the intercom..
" this is an expressed tram.. we stop for no one.."

Huh?

" Rock and roooooooooolll... we're singing rock and rooooooooll..."
Mr tram driver must be doing dope.

" The night has just beggguuuuuuunn.." the singing continued.
My fellow passengers and i exchanged glances.

" drunk?" i mouthed to the guy oppostie me.. he grinned and nodded.

So we continued through the dark, with the tram driver giving comments at every stop.

ST kildas." Wer'e picking up angels.." ( 4 gals walked up)

Flinders.."if you wanna take the train home.. THIS is where you get off.. mwahhaha"

Brke
" this is my favourite stop... Mwhahaha.. have a good night."


WEIRD>

I'd jyust entered twilight zone. I"m sorry if i got off the tram chuckling to myself. i think the passengers coming up thot i was bonkers.

dandenongs at pie in the sky with the mumsg