The Adventures Of Vivi The Vet Student

Turning Point

2011-11-05T16:04:00.002+08:00

I guess people eventually always come to a point where they decide once and for all what they're going to do. Sometimes earlier sometimes later. It always helps to do it earlier, so you've time to prepare, but sometimes circumstances are that not everyone can make a decision so early. And sometimes its better to make a decision later, leaving yourself with more options.

I guess there's no one correct way really. We can just make our decisions and be certain that they were the right ones. Cause everything happens for a reason.

Nepal was my turning point. Before this it was still a maybe thing, but Nepal sort of decided it for me.

And to think, I was debating with myself whether or not to go cause I was afraid of presenting in front of such an intimidating audience! Sometimes if you want to do something, and the only thing holding you back is fear and lack of confidence and you recognise that, then that should be even more proof to you that you should do it. Thats what I think. I'm ever so glad that I did. This has proven to be one of the best trips I've had in my life so far.

It was one of those weeks you wish wouldn't end.... Started with a two day conference at the Himalaya Hotel and the Yala Maya Kendra restaurant in Kathmandu. Man was I nervous. Never had the opportunity to present in front of an international audience before. And on top of that my presentation was rather puny compared to the others. Felt slightly out of my league in there. I was glad to have a support team there beside me though, to keep up the stream of assurances that it would be fine. Bless them. Dr R, Dr S, Dr C and Dr A, you guys rock:)

In the end I thought, the hell with it, I'm here, I've practised, there's no turning back now, so I should stop worrying about it. And that settled the jitters. Somewhat. Lol. In the end I managed to get through pretty well I think. I still feel my presentation was a bit juvenile. But no matter. Hopefully I'll get a chance to present there again, this time with something more significant.

Our Nepalese hosts were ever so wonderful in planning this whole thing, including lunches and dinners and post conference excursions. And thats not considering the fact that this was all held during the Diwali week. Exceptional hosts and every one in the conference came away very pleased I think.

Some highlights of the week:

Enjoying Nepalese/Indian food, especially the Nan, which is so soft and has a slight sweetish taste to it there, Masala tea, and momo, which is a type of dumpling. Although I must say my stomach has been unsettled for the past week, starting from the moment I stepped onto that plane to come home. Not sure why.

Finding my way from my hotel to the place the conference was held. I love the feeling of walking in a city so different from your own and absorbing everything. In this case the walk was a bit 'smokier' than usual, with all the stuff in the air. Kathmandu's air is really quite unhealthy. You can see some of the locals wearing face masks walking about town. No wonder I didn't meet a single tourist on those first two days as I made my one hour trek to the conference. Nonetheless, I did enjoy my little walks. Being in a foreign city makes you feel as if you're on an adventure and who knows what new and exciting thing could be just around the corner? Well. Actually we could very well do that in our own country too and I'm just romanticising things. Or perhaps thats the whole point of travelling to a foreign country sometimes.

The 2 hour long ride atop this enormous female elephant, seeing the forest and watching the sun set over it, being able to touch the treetops without any difficulty, seeing rhinos in the wild and looking across at this beautiful evening time vista of elephants in the wide meandering river, with a forest stretching out into the distance with the sky so big overhead... Ok now I realise I'm quite inadequate when describing scenery. Must work on that if I'm ever going to write my book one day.

The one hour morning flight to see the Himalayas. Will ever be grateful to someone for that. We each got our own window seat, and at first there wasn't much to see... Until we ascended above the layer of smog that covers Kathmandu, into literally, the realm of the gods. Everything was bright and crisp and the snow capped peaks looked so surreal. I'm going to stop trying to describe them cause I couldn't possibly do them justice at this point. Suffice to say, when each one of us emerged after spending a precious minute in the cockpit, where the windows are much much much bigger (not that we hate the pilots for that, they do have to fly the plane), every single person had this enormous smile on faces. It ended way too soon, and then we descended back into smog and the realm of men again.

Walking down the streets with my companions and coming across this young couple, about 13/14 years old, practising their Bollywood inspired moves for a Diwali performance that night. It was off the road and we only happened upon it after hearing music and going to investigate. They had gathered quite an audience of mostly young kids and teenagers, and were quite pleased that we had stopped by to watch I think, cause after about ten minutes they started pulling out benches and urging us to sit on them. The boy was probably slightly discomfited by the foreign attention, but the girl... Phew the girl was a fiery one. Flashing eyes and full of confidence in every move and all that. Made one speculate as to what kind of woman she would turn out to be. The dancing was very well done and very infectious and energetic, worthy (in my opinion) of being in a Bollywood movie. Then after that two younger kids did a performance, and then two girls did another... Wished I could have stayed longer, but I sensed my companions were getting a bit bored. Wonder when I'll have a chance to dance again though!

And last but definitely not least, meeting and talking (and most times just listening in on conversations) with people from all over Asia. It made me really realise how much more is out there, how much more there is to learn, and how much more there is to be inspired by. Vets who work with wildlife are just the coolest!

So I've figured out that I need to spend some time abroad, working and training. I guess the travelling bug has bitten me. Over the past few months, I have been ever so lucky to have travelled to 4 very different countries. And I have loved this feeling of being inspired and being in close proximity to inspiring people. People who have very different motivations in life and where there's a different sort of energy afoot. Its kind of addictive. So if it takes passing a RCVS exam to get where I want, I'm prepared to do whatever it takes.

To be honest I feel slightly guilty in deciding to leave my family and my home... But I'll be back someday. And when I get there, if I get there.... They can always come visit right?

Airports

2011-07-23T21:10:00.002+08:00

Have learned to like airports after spending so much time in them recently. Currently at LCCT waiting for my flight to Melbourne. Huh they just opened the gate for boarding more than an hour early, so this will have to be a super short post.

Singapore was different and slightly unexpected, but as usual I learned a whole lot. Made some really cool friends. And got to work with a lot of big stuff.

So after 7 weeks of wildlife, finally will be going back to horses, dogs and cats again. Really looking forward to this placement, possibly the final one of my undergrad student life.

Am really grateful for all the opportunities that I have been given. I am so super lucky and I won't forget it ever.

Off to board the plane!

African Adventures

2011-07-09T17:46:00.002+08:00

Its too hard to try to tell about every single thing I did and experienced in Joburg. So I'll just try to describe to you the end result.

The end result is, me coming back totally rejuvenated and knowing what I want to be doing and where I want to be going. When I was there, work equalled play. It was so much fun I spent every single day at the hospital from the day I touched down in Joburg at 6am in the morning right up to the day I left. Every single day was amazing. I totally and utterly loved it. I met wonderful laker people who were the epitome of friendliness and kindness, two of which have become my especial role models that I really look up to and aspire to be like one day. I figured out what areas of my life I need to work on, and found the inspiration that will see me through.

It was definitely a turning point for me I guess. I learnt a lot, not just about vet stuff but also a lot of things about myself, and going out with zoo staff or zoo related staff I got a feel of this culture which is quite different from ours. A well rounded educational trip you might say.

Knowing that I'm on the right path for where I need to go in this lifetime feels absolutely amazing. Sounds corny but its absolutely true.

Ipoh Awesomeness

2011-05-15T20:50:00.002+08:00

Just had the most wonderful week at the Perak Turf Club. So so so so so fun. Definitely ranks as one of the top 3 Greatest Practicals of All Time.

The best practicals are the ones that inspire you to learn more on your own and make you enthusiastic for more. What makes them the best are good teachers and a conducive learning environment. And it couldn't get much better than the week I just had. The vets there are ever so kind and willing to teach you, which makes you feel very grateful. The hospital is very well designed and comes complete with a library, where we spent much time refreshing our knowledge of all things equine. And all the other people we met were just as nice and friendly. One of them had this beautiful affectionate golden retriever, and it was just so much fun playing with her every day. And horses make wonderful carrot commercials.

What made the practical even better, was the conquering of Ipoh, which is a major food haven. The ones that left the biggest impact was the beef kuey tiao soup near Sam Tet school (stall no 47 I think), banana leaf rice at the stadium (Thillai, the stall nearest to the toilet), and popiah at the row of stalls next to Wooley's. Other notables were taugeh chicken, Foh San's dim sum, laksa at Kong Meng, ice cream sundaes at a little adorable ice cream lounge near Wooleys, Chemor's Sami banana leaf with crab and prawn curry, and Hakka mee with yong tau foo at the origin of Old Town White Coffee, the Nam Heong coffeeshop. I think I had kuey tiao almost every day, so I'm quite sick of it at the moment. So for the coming week I laid in a small stock of groceries and shall just eat at home.

But the icing on the cake was definitely spending time with the girls. It's just so much fun going on practical with them. There's always a lot of hilarity and teasing going on its hard to feel depressed for even a moment, and the endorphin levels are kept pretty much on a steady high. Wen Chee definitely should have a show, which would be called Wen Chee Says The Darndest Things. Shyla should have a note in history for saying ' Miley Cyrus has a movie called Lobster?'. Vish was admonished multiple times by the aunty selling bak gua buns to not open the plastic and eat it tomorrow morning yea, which we found hilarious. And Vania introduced me to the wonderful Running Man, which I am trying very hard to stream but the line is working against me as usual.

Sigh. Pure Awesomeness. Begets well for the coming pracs.

One More Year To Make Mistakes

2011-05-08T00:01:00.002+08:00

A quote from one of my lecturers.

Very excited for the upcoming holidays. Actually should be much more excited its just this heat is killing me at the moment. Haven't done much all day except try and keep cool.

So finally, the much awaited end-of-4th-year practicals arrive. Through the years we've seen the seniors go off on their pracs to various countries and wondered, where will I be going when the time comes?

Fate intervened this time around, and instead of getting the usual 2 month break, I get a 4 month break. 4 months to do practicals to my hearts content. What luck you say? Yeah I agree. I also am very very lucky to be going to so many places.

First stop is the Perak Turf Club with the girls. Have always really enjoyed my time with them, exploring little towns all over Malaysia. Since this is the last practical with the gang, I shall make sure I appreciate every moment.

One week later have to be back in UPM for post-mortem practical. Then back to Penang for a weeks break before the adventures really begin.

During my adventures I want to remember that it is not the destination that matters, but the journey. And that there are no ordinary moments.

Special mention goes to my mom and dad for all their support. Without them I would be nowhere.

I Got My Nights and Weekends Back

2011-03-01T23:28:00.003+08:00

So, finally finished my wards rotation for the semester. Tiring but really learnt a lot. Slightly more confident and quite looking forward to handling my own cases next semester. Can't believe it but 5th year is just around the corner.

So, one more week for front office rotation before we go into the 2nd half of rotation, which is also commonly known among students as The Free and Easy Rotations (which begets the question of whether you learn much there).

Inspiring teachers and inspiring lectures make so much of a difference when it comes down to making students want to study hard for a subject. Or a particular field of study. At least you get a sense of where you should be going and what you should be reading.

Anyways, although I thoroughly enjoyed my learning experiences at the wards, I am glad to have my nights and weekends back. My room and my notes desperately need some cleaning up. So behind with my reading assignments (that I quite enjoy actually!) but thats entirely my own fault for getting hooked on a drama series the whole of last week.

Gah its just so easy to escape into another world where fantastic otherworldly things are every day events. Every night last week I came home from wards knowing I had an escape pass( and thus the lagging behind on reading assignments), but now I've finished all my passes, I'm having withdrawal symptoms. Its funny how Shyla was telling me she was having the same thing today, albeit with Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy.

Is it healthy, to spend so much time in an alternate reality? Probably not. But as long as there is science fiction and fantasy and mystery and magic and heroes and heroines and villains and the supernatural, I don't think I'll be able to stop going there. Perhaps one day I'll be able to create an alternate reality of my own, over which I have complete dominion and an unlimited number of escape passes.

I think everyone could use a little magic now and then to help us along.

Finally

2011-02-18T23:25:00.003+08:00

Phew, dreaded nightmare week over. Having morning and night wards and tests at the same time is no joke man.

Glee was seriously my life saver this week. I am not kidding when I said that I came back from wards on Monday night with a massive headache. So I was waiting for my hair to dry after bathing and just drinking hot milo and watching my favourite Glee covers. Especially the ones with Darren Criss and the Beelzebubs. Very miraculously I found my headache gone after 20 minutes or so. So now I have my own personal wonder potion. Or maybe it was the milo. I am quite a serious milo addict too, so maybe I was just having milo withdrawal symptoms.

Chinese New Year this year was awesome, as usual. For some reason there was more busying about, and less sitting in the room with your cousins and doing nothing (which is cool too). I loved having my family over in KL and eating our way to Muar and back again. Loved being in Muar and seeing everyone. And as usual, it ended way too fast and it was time to go. All of us get along so well even though we only see each other 3 days (a few more if we're lucky) a year.

Then had the usual post CNY blues for a bit, settled down to the test test test routine again, then went into wards, and had a very tiring week. But its finally over, so i can focus on my wards next week, which is so much more preferable, for how are you supposed to read up properly about your cases when you have to memorise facts for a test?

Its such a blessing to have the new faculty so much nearer to home.

I miss my brother and my cat.

I just realised I'm really sleepy.

Good night.

Being Greedy Doesn't Pay

2010-11-28T18:44:00.002+08:00

Had a nice weekend with my aunt and two little cousins. Ate lotsa good stuff and baked some peanut butter and chocolate muffins, which turned out pretty good.

Still unsure as to whether the London trip will be happening or not. Sigh.... The other day, I got pretty upset when I called the office to see whether they had approved my application, since I knew they had already held the meeting that morning. And the person told me that they had only just received my application that afternoon.

I was really frustrated as I had been rushing to complete my application (and on top of that it was during finals) the previous week before the Friday deadline, and I had managed to pass it up to the faculty office by Wednesday, the fastest among all my coursemates to do that and I felt proud of myself for getting a place and doing everything so quickly. But somehow or the other the international office (at another building) only received it on Monday afternoon. And they have no idea when the next meeting will be so everything is just in limbo.

I felt even more frustrated as I could not set my practical plans for the holidays. I was due at the turf club for a week, a workshop which I really really wanted to go to, and a 3 week lab practical, which I would have to cancel some and change it all around if the London trip was approved.

And then my mind cleared and I saw the light, for I saw that it was my own fault for being greedy and wanting to go overseas again when I had already applied for the mobility fund the previous semester, and I had already planned out the coming holiday very nicely months before this.

But having sent in my application and contacted the places in London, I decided to just start the hols with the lab practical and wait for confirmation..... Which is still pending, and I have a bad feeling that it won't be approved in time for departure.

Kicking myself for passing up on the turf club, a place I always learn tons from, and also the workshop especially. Somebody once told me to make sure I have my priorities in order, and I didn't listen. Serves me right for not listening.

Why did I have to be so greedy?

Life in Penang

2010-11-26T22:43:00.002+08:00

Been back for about a week already. The lab is a bit boring, but at least I get to revise all my bacteriology and parasitology and virology, which is a good thing cause I have forgotten so much of it. Especially bacteriology.

And we had fun doing histology slides out of tissue samples, which we never had a chance to do before previously. Actually you would think that we were like kids that found some new toys to play with, embedding the organ samples in wax and using the microtome to cut them up into 5 micron thin slices and fixing them and staining them and mounting them.

So yeah, the lab isn't all bad.

Over the past week I have slowly begun to recall what I love most and miss most about life in Penang. As I drive along the streets that I have drove on a hundred or even a thousand times before, it just sets off all the nice memories that I have of my time here.

Look at me, talking like an old grandma when I'm like, only 23 years old and only spent 3 and a half years away. Sigh.

Couldn't resist turning into Raja Uda just now after sending Vania to the jetty (big thanks to my ex-roomie for coming to stay with me for this practical since my parents aren't around!), and getting some Ham Chim Peng. And Hua Chi and that Thingy With The Rice In The Middle Which I Never Figured Out What It's Called. Should really ask the hawker next time. A long time ago, on the way home from tuition, my dad and I would stop by the roadside and we would get a few of these fried delicacies for supper.

So am now enjoying tea (which my mom used to make for us every night before bed without fail) with deep fried stuff and finishing my 6th book from the Big Bad Wolf Sale.

Life is good:)

You know another thing I really miss? Having a crush on a guy. I just realised that I have not had a crush on a guy for like 1 whole year already. Which is a record by the way. I used to have tons of crushes. Serious crushes, fleeting crushes, 'when I look back I think, what the hell was I thinking??' crushes.......

It's funny when I recall the serious crushes I had were in these yearly blocks, mainly because the guys I had a crush on weren't in the same vicinity anymore due to various reasons. So there was one in Standard 5, then he graduated, and then there was one in Standard 6, then I graduated, then there was the really long one from Form 1 to Form 4, then that one graduated, and then there was the Form 5 one, and then we went off on hols and National Service for a few months, and then there was the Form 6 one, and then we all graduated. Lol.

At university there were probably a couple of serious crushes and a handful of fleeting crushes, and then I sort of grew out of it. I'd like to think that I've become more mature and have stopped falling for guys that I barely even know, like really really know properly, but I think the more plausible explanation is the lack of uber-cool attractive seniors around as I myself am a senior already.

Which is sad as having a crush makes life so much more fun. But as fate has put in me in this time and place I shall just be grateful for what I have and make do with tea and books and fried stuff for the moment.:)

A Somewhat Anti-Climactic Ending

2010-11-20T00:49:00.003+08:00

So there goes the Seventh Semester and 3 and a half years of uni life. Couldn't help but feel it was a bit anti-climax. I celebrated this particular milestone by reloading my touch n go card, refilling the car with petrol, getting cat food for MJ and giving my hair some much needed attention with a trip to my favourite hair salon. And then I went home for a nice long nap.

Was going to go home tomorrow but decided to stay an extra day since there's no one at home and my parents are off honeymooning, again. They deserve it though after so many years of raising us troublesome kiddies.

Anyways have been wanting to post about my recent shopping spree. I don't think I have ever spent so recklessly yet in my life so far.

So I got up at 6am last Friday as I decided it was no use sleeping anymore as I was way too excited. Went over my notes again for my Theriogenology paper at 8.30am, and got ready my cloth bags and made sure I had enough money in my wallet.

At 10.30am, my two companions and I hopped straight into the car and set off for South City Plaza. For today was the day of the sale I had been waiting for for a month and had so eagerly anticipated that I even had a dream about it. Lol. I guess I really am a book nerd. But the Big Bad Wolf Sale is no joke. It is the most Wonderful Sale in The World.

We got there around 10.50am and the place was packed. My juniors who had been there when it opened said the the line to go in stretched the whole length of the South City Plaza. Each of us grabbed an empty box and proceeded into the throng. After about 15 minutes I completely gave up on the box as I kept banging into people with it and couldn't get around at all, so I stuffed the books into the bags I had brought and continued on the book hunt.

I guess it was like an hour or two later before I finally looked up again. There was a crick in my neck from staring down at books and my shoulders were sore from the amount of books I was carrying around in my bags and I was a bit dizzy from looking at hundreds of titles of books.

That was seriously some of the best fun I've had for a long time. Spent about 4 and a half hours there and the total damage was RM 266 for 30+ books.

Couldn't resist, had to go back again the next day. Total damage: RM 144 for 17 books.

On the 2nd last and last day, went back to see what was left. There was a Fire Sale as expected on the last day, with everything going for RM5. Thank god my brother was paying though.

Annndd All Together Now:

My cat checking out my books.

It was funny how that every time I went to the sale, I would meet at least a few of my fellow coursemates. A lot of 3rd year juniors seemed to be there like, all the time. I hadn't realised that there were so many book nerds in the faculty. It feels good to buy books though. It's one of those very justifiable expenses. It feels even better when you buy good books at 1/5th or less of the usual price.

It was also funny how the Big Bad Wolf was dominating the facebook status of almost everyone in the vet faculty for those few days, and how everyone was so giddy with book love. We even set up a facebook book exchange group called The Voracious Vet Villain's Book Corner where we post up photos of our books so we know who has what and so we can borrow each others books. 44 members and 282 books in the virtual library so far. You know, I always wanted to be a librarian:)

Off to do a bit of reading before bed!

Study Week!

2010-10-31T21:48:00.002+08:00

First time we've had a study week since I've been here. I must say, this is pretty nice.

So first semester of 4th year is over and finally (finally!) got to see what all the hoo haa in the small animal wards was all about. Apart from being really tiring (even though we just get up one hour earlier, it makes you so very tired somehow! ) and having excuses to sleep very early every night and not do so well in your tests:P, it was really quite fun. Lots of stuff to do, lots of animals to play with, and learnt a lot in my month of the small animals. Got scratched and bitten, met and took care of some really nice patients, and generally had a blast with my rota group. Was blessed to get such a nice rota group this year (Group 8 - Juwai, Fil, Azeem and Zul, you guys rock!). Memorably we even won for orientation on the first day and kena belanja by the people who brought the digital radiography machines on the last day.

I am in a good place right now. Feeling happy and genuinely interested in my studies, I somehow don't feel stressed out about finals. Everyone else seems to be. But I've had enough of stressing about how I measure up and the things I don't know. If I don't know it, then fine, I'll learn it today and thats another extra thing I've learnt. If I do badly in my tests, fine, I'll go and see what I couldn't answer and look it up. One bit of knowledge at a time. Life is really too short to spend it in misery and making yourself sick with stress. The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

Really excited about the Big Bad Wolf sale next week! 11 more days to go. Still trying to figure out what is an appropriate budget after that shopping spree at Book Xcess the other day. Sigh, I really love reading. Sometimes I think to myself, all it would take to make me happy is good food, good books and good company. What more would I ask for?

Been absorbed reading up on cardiology this weekend. Its such an interesting subject! Too bad we don't do much electrocardiography and echocardiography here. I think there is a huge chiasm for veterinary specialists of all fields here in Malaysia.

Should get back to the books. I mean the academic kind of course.

Praying For A Good Week

2010-09-18T23:32:00.002+08:00

Since when do I pray did you say? Well, practically since never as I'm not a religious person.

But you know what, that isn't exactly true. I've been reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (recommended by my old friend of the same name, Ms Vivian Tan) for the past few days. Just an ok book for me (what do you expect when the author had this whim to divide the story to suit the number of chapters, she wanted there to be 36 chapters for each of the 3 sections of the book, some sort of divine significance), but it did open my eyes a little more. Haven't finished it yet. Made me really want to go to Italy one day. Ashrams in India, not so much, but maybe. And I've already been to Bali in Indonesia, which didn't impress me all that much.

So while I was reading this book I suddenly recalled that once upon a time, I used to pray too. By pray I mean talk to God. This was a very long time ago, probably when I was back in primary school. I don't remember it all too clearly. Every night under the covers, before I went to sleep, I would clasp my hands and talk to God. It was probably to ask for something or the other. I seriously don't remember. And it wasn't to any particular God (even back then, I wasn't one for organised religion), it was just the one almighty God that was in charge of the whole universe.

Its funny to remember things like that after all these years. Because clearly that was one habit that didn't stick around for very long.

Been having a bit of a moody week. Not depressed moody, just not at peace moody. It may have been spending that week alone here in KL, going to the clinic in the day, coming back home at night to my cat, and reading George R.R. Martin's A Song for Lya and The Second Kind of Loneliness.

Shall just stop now and go to sleep as I need to wake up to go to the wards in the morning.

Hoping that everything will turn out alright this week. I wonder if I'll feel better if I pray about it.

Alone in KL

2010-09-10T21:13:00.002+08:00

Streets were pretty (well, relatively) deserted today. All the Malays are at home celebrating Raya and all the Chinese and Indians are in the shopping complexes. At least it seemed that way when I went to Midvalley just now to satisfy my craving for Japanese (hey I've been hungering for some good sushi for weeks and weeks, and I kept getting thwarted!). Thought I would catch Step Up 3 again but the next screening was a bit too late. Shall settle for going next week when I have more time.

Shen Nee has finally told me about the dancing classes. Wonder whether I'll have time after the hols end. Sigh.... To go or not to go to go or not to go..........

Spent RM 116.45 at BookXcess today. Aiya. Memang tau cannot resist cheap books nak pergi jugak. It's Michelle Fong's fault this time. These people are the same organisers of the Big Bad Book Sale, where the books were really really cheap and I bought a whole stack for RM 70 ++ only. Today I only got 6 books though. Still a steal.

Dreamsongs Volume I by George R. R. Martin, hardcover (yay, have been looking for this one:))

Rm24.90

Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian

RM 9.90

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, age 13 and 3/4, Sue Townsend

RM 17.90

Regina's Song by David and Leigh Eddings, hardcover

RM 19.90

Next by Michael Crichton, hardcover

RM 19.90

Last Chance to See by Mark Cawardine, hardcover

RM24.90

All new books too. Sigh. Should satisfy my book appetite for quite awhile.

I sometimes wonder if I could be a writer one day. And then I look at the amount of obscure titles which fill the shelves between the famous ones and I wonder, who reads all these books? Is it their fate to end up at cheap book clearance sales going for RM9.90 per copy?

One day Vivian, maybe one day.

I did write a 50,000 word novella once back in Form 6, for the Nanowrimo. It wasn't finished though. I crossed the 50,000 word finishing line and promptly abandoned it. It was probably crap anyway. I wonder what happened to it.....

When I was young and someone asked me, what do you wanna be when you grow up, I would say, I wanna be a librarian! Seems funny but I sometimes still wish I could be a librarian. A librarian in The Greatest Library on Earth. In secondary school my friend and I made plans open a bookstore cum music store. She would take care of the music section and I would do the book section (lolz, how unoriginal were we?). Mmmm a little quaint bookstore like the one Meg Ryan's character has in Sleepless in Seattle would be sweet. Or the super big one that Tom Hank's character has wouldn't be bad either (hey more books:P).

Wokays end of day-dreaming mode.

Been having fun the past 4 days at the small animal clinic. Didn't expect it would be so fun to be honest. The day just zips by although the working hours are so long (9.30am to 8pm). There's so much interesting stuff to learn and see. I just trail along behind one vet or the other like an annoying pup, eavesdrop on their conversations with clients, help to restrain the animals if needed, try to figure out what's what on x-rays, look at blood smears and FNAs, watch interesting surgeries, etc etc. Before you know it its 4pm and we haven't had lunch. It helps that the vets there are super nice and are not annoyed and take that little bit of time to explain stuff to you between cases. Really grateful for that.

So small animal practitioner? Not a bad career choice. It's nice to see these pets which are so loved and to be able to do something for them. And then I would (eventually) perhaps be able to practice in my beloved home state of Penang. Wildlife or zoo medicine here is just depressing sometimes. Sad and bored wild animals staring out of their cages. But hey, if everyone thinks that way and no one goes into that field to do anything for them it will just stay the same year in and year out.

Well we shall see. 1 and 3/4 years to go.

Looking forward to Hectic Saturday tommorow:)

1 and 3/4 Years To Go

2010-09-04T21:01:00.002+08:00

Currently on hols for Raya. It's really nice to be on holiday again. This time, I decided not to go home to Penang, as my parents had just come down last week and I wanted to go volunteer at a clinic ( havent been for small animal practical since 1st year!) and do some reading.

What a nice day its been. Woke up this morning and sent some emails regarding my overseas practicals next year (probably going to South Africa! woohoo! :D) and then cleaned up the whole house. Cooked vegetable and chicken soup with pasta, and then Brian cut mangos and apples for our lunch. So healthy. Then sent Zi Herk and Wai Cheng to LCCT in the evening with Brain and had really nice nasi lemak and bak kut teh for dinner. And then settled down to update my blog.

So here I am, a 4th year vet student, and I must say, 4th year has not let me down so far. Been hearing the seniors say clinical years are the best since I was in first year. And I truly have been enjoying myself. Granted, there will always be the boring lecture here and there (can't escape from that) but as a whole, I would say that I am liking where I am right now.

Found myself reading my blog from the first post way back in first year until the posts in 4th year.... Lolz, that took some time. But its good to see how far you've come. Haven't posted much lately though.

Sigh... So we managed to make the catch-neuter and release plan a reality after all. Feels kinda nuts to still be doing all this activity stuff in the 4th year. And I was reading one of my Dogathon posts just now, about how 'I never want to be in a committee again'. Harhar. And look at where I am now.

But when I proposed to push for the idea last year, I really was only thinking about the cats at K17, and how the population was spiralling out of control, and how this is probably due to the negligence (or ignorance rather) of our own vet students, who brought them back to kolej and left them there because they are so 'kesian' and there's so many cat feeders in kolej. And as vet students, shouldn't we be looking out for the welfare of these animals, rather than letting them breed uncontrollably and produce truckloads of kittens that run amok in the corridors and die when everyone goes back on holiday (like now) and theres no one to feed them?

I felt like I would be ashamed if I could do something but I didn't. So I did. That truly was my only consideration, and it really hurt when someone told me that they overheard a staff member saying that 'they're only doing this to impress the lecturers'. And later on, called me stupid (many times) to my face too. And is throwing a wrench into our works and is not being cooperative at all. Oh man, I.... well, enough of dwelling on that. (Ps if I wanted to impress any lecturers, I would be studying my ass off and aceing my exams, not running about driving myself to distraction with drawing up lists and plans and meets and generally giving myself a whole lot of extra work like a 2nd year who has nothing better to do:P)

All I was thinking at the time was, this is a simple, easy project that we can do, and will help the cats. Whats so difficult about catching 15 cats (we're doing it twice so total 30 cats), taking them in for neutering (done by the VOs), and then taking care of them until they're ready for release? Nothing, thats what. So I CAN do this. We will do this together, my class and I, and it will be a success. (huh positive thinking all the way)

Anyway enough of that. I have more positive places to dwell in. Like for example my doing better than expected for test 1. I know that I've continually said that grades aren't important, and I am so over those things, and you know what, I thought I was. And I think I still am. But its still a really nice feeling when you see your matric number amongst the top 10 in class. Old habits die hard. I hope this keeps up, and I can get back on the Dean's list which I have currently fell out of for the past 4 semesters:P)

My good friend Pursh has done quite well too (beating me in epidemiology, huh the lecturer SO likes you more:P) and we were saying how we should keep it up. And it occurred to me last night that some people, when they hear this, may think that its because of kiasu=ism (lot of that going around lately) and maintaining our 'spot' at the top, but really its not. Its about doing well in your test and feeling good cause hey, you at least know a thing or two now. And getting motivated to learn more.

Pursh was saying, it's strange how good results are a better inspiration for doing well compared to bad results. Hey I agree completely. And yesterday I remembered Inception, and what Leonardo Dicaprio says when the team is discussing about the event that will plant the idea into the rich son's mind, and debating whether it should evoke a positive emotion or a negative emotion. He said 'positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time'. And then they went for the 'your father wants you to be your own man' idea. Wooo that was a good movie. Should watch it again.

Speaking of movies, I have to go watch Step Up 3 again. Crappy plot, but man the dancing.... I miss dancing I miss dancing I miss dancing! And I am so in love with Adam Sevani (along with a thousand other girls around the globe), who totally stole the show from the two main leads along with his cute best friend. With charisma like that we'll be seeing him in more movies to come, I'm quite sure. And the way he dances is just so, so.... Well he was just born to dance!

Hmmmm, other things I've done this semester. Went to the VAM/ASZWM congress and got to see all the cool wildlife and zoo vets from Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Japan and of course Malaysia. It was especially nice to see all the Malaysian wildlife and zoo vets in one place. Makes me wonder what it would be like to be one of them. And got to say hi to Dr. Paolo from HK, who is totally my idol now. Really cool guy.

Got a sunbear case for my clinical conference, visited the Klinik Kembiri and saw their conveyor belt system (really awesome), went to Dogathon for the first time as a non-committee member (1100 dogs!), trotted a horse for the first time (whoopee), celebrated my birthday with Food Week, where I got a stomachache as a present, had steamboat, bak kut teh, pancakes over the week and my parents and sis came over on the weekend and we had more food, and then we held a steamboat/sleepover Merdeka party the following Monday at my house.

This is turning out to be a long post. But it wouldn't be complete without raving about my house here, which I love love love. I love having my own room. I love having a fridge and oven and stove and washing machine. I love the solitude. I love having people over to stay. I love having everything from food to groceries to entertainment so nearby. I love waking up in the morning and knowing I have a nice long day to spend in my own home.

Trying to be a better person and reduce talking bad about people as well, it has basically become boring going over a person's flaws over and over and repeating blow by blow accounts of events over and over. Really drama queens la all these people who have been in wards. Lols. But it is hard not to talk bad especially when the person who used to have the title of 'most frequently dissed and talked about and discussed' has had the title taken away and given to another person, who has even worse flaws and is even easier to hate.

Shall just try to distance myself from that and stay as positive and optimistic as I can and stay motivated to study, partially with an aim of not embarrassing myself when I go for my zoo pracs in South Africa and Singapore next year.:D

One Week Into Fourth Year

2010-07-16T20:08:00.002+08:00

Well here we are, already one week into the fourth year. And what an interesting week it has been! But first, some stuff about my holidays.

During the past two months I have visited IVM in Kluang, Johor, the Hong Kong Ocean Park, and the Taiping Zoo. All were awesome in their own way and I was really inspired by the practicals I did this semester (as usual).

Che Giap, Vania and I were at IVM for 3 weeks at the beginning of the hols. Minus Yuan Yih. We got to get more confident at handling ruminants big and small, woke up super early (5am!!) one week to help at the milking parlor, did a lot of wound cleaning and picking at maggot wounds(I enjoy that for some reason:P), did pregnancy diagnosis for the first time, practised our lassoing skills one afternoon (I'm really bad at it), had dinner at a different place every day, went bicycling at an organic vegetable farm, ate delicious teochew porridge at Air Hitam, went shopping at Kluang Mall, and tried the famous Klang Railway bread and coffee. Altogether a pretty enjoyable practical at the 'countryside'.

But the next month was the really inspiring one for me. I would call it my Month of Wildlife. After a really really nice trip to Macau with my family, I stopped over at Hong Kong to check out their Ocean Park for 2 weeks. Although I'm pretty sure I can't write anything about what I saw behind the scenes due to confidentiality reasons, I will say that what I saw there really showed me how excellent conditions can be for wild animals kept in captivity. The empathy and dedication shown towards those entrusted into their care was something I hope Malaysian zoos may one day be able to emulate. I really loved how much effort was put into each case we saw and the patience they showed in making things as stress free for the animal as possible.

So after my stint in Hong Kong, it was back to reality at one of our local zoos, the Taiping Zoo. I always have a great time whenever I practical there and this time it was no different. There was something new to learn every day and especially since there's a new young genius just got from the states but really mischievous vet working there, we got quizzed every day on things we were supposed to have learned but didn't learn properly and went home every night very suitably chastened and did revision. We worked hard but we played hard too, with water fights and blowpipe battles and some incidences involving ice cream, root beer and civet faeces. I feel that the zoo has so much potential but at the moment its just lacking enough of the right people to get it there.

So, having finished my practicals last week, it was then back to home to collect all my stuffs (which my darling mother so generously packed all sorts of gadgets for me to bring, I didn't even know what was in all the bags till I got back to KL), and off to settle into my new home. Which has been simply awesome so far. I'm really liking all the quiet and lack of distractions here. Its definitely worth the few extra hundred RM per semester. Had to keep calling back home to ask how the various things worked though. Sigh, what would I do without my parents.....

Fourth year is definitely the best and most exciting thus far, with us going into rotation and getting course schedules that are full and really challenging and really damn interesting. I am going to enjoy this semester to the max... Just today we had a lecturer tell us about the art of history taking, and how every client and patient that comes in has a story to tell and how it is up to us to fit the whole story together and put the jigsaw puzzle into one piece. So cool!:P

Have to be a study geek from now on though. Determined to work my hardest this semester and read and cram as much knowledge as I can into my brain. I have so many holes in my knowledge but I shan't dwell on that and shall just start filling them up, one hole at a time. I'm a STPM 4 flat student aren't I? This should be no harder than that was.

Feeling good, hope it lasts, got to keep my head in the game and my eyes on the prize and learn learn learn, study study study!

Off to equine rotation first, yay!

So I Guess This Is Goodbye

2010-05-02T21:31:00.003+08:00

Well, spending my last few hours as a K17 resident here in my room at K17.

Thought I would feel sadder but well, I don't really. I guess I'm kinda excited at moving to a new place and getting a room of my own. Never has a room of my own before.

So much has happened here in the confines of this almost resort-like college, so much in the last 3 years I've been here.

Some key moments I really cherish are :

- The first time I walked into the apartment and realised what luxury I was going to be living in.

- Winning MTB in that first week of first year. And then losing my new handphone on the same day.

- Being part of an amazing dance group. Practising for and making a clean sweep of the awards at the Night of Natyanjali.

- Becoming an MTM, and that crazy year of late night meetings and excursions and free food, the intrigues and political struggles (nah i'm kidding bout that last part:P)

- Being a facilitator during orientation week.

- dancing with Arustika Putrasakti.

- practising with my mates at dark basketball courts, tennis courts, and badminton courts for cheerleading and silaturrahim and etc etc.

- jogging around kolej.

- watching 17 Idol in first year and listening to Geo singing for the first time. Also, auditioning for it for merit. and cheering Vania on in the 2nd year.

- moving all my stuff up and down every semester:P

- getting my own kitten. and just so Vish doesn't beat me up, I clarify that I brought a cat in, took care of it, never let it roam outside and be a nuisance by pooping all over the place as I litter trained him, neutered him, fed him, and is now safely in my home in Penang.

- the long walk from the bus outside into kolej when you just got back from holidays and are lugging heavy bags but then you sit down in your room and feel glad to be back.

- the kolej when its nice and quiet and prettily lit up unlike any other kolej.

- the many many many friends I've met here.

- being housemates (3 years!) with Vania, Shyla, Kunes, and Mary. And the others who came and went, Natalia, Jing Feng, Sonia, Joanne, Hui Xuan and Seik Ni.

Ah well, enough of that. All I can say is, I've been very lucky to have been placed here. I honestly think that after 3 years here, I'm leaving as a different (and better) person, and I'm grateful for that.

So.... guess this is good bye then! Thank you Kolej 17!

What A Week!!

2010-04-12T22:42:00.002+08:00

Been wanting to write for awhile but was completely swamped. Still am actually. Supposed to be studying for my next paper which is the day after tomorrow.

After a whole semester of slackness and relaxing, I finally got bombarded in my final week of class at my soon to be ex-faculty building. Moving to a new complex next semester.

So it all started on Monday when after waiting a whole semester, it was finally my group's turn to do the parasite presentation. Seminar number 21 to be exact. That was also the day I found out I got kicked out of kolej for having not enough merit. To be honest I wasn't expecting it at all as I thought I had enough merit. Oh, I had a Pathology test that morning too.

The next day, my coursemate YY tells me that she won't be joining us next year, and will be taking half a year off to recuperate from her operation. Poor thing had a messed up appendectomy and now has a huge incision line all the way down her abdomen. Didn't see that one coming either, as I thought she was getting better.... She is actually, just can't keep up, having been gone a month and missed all the papers and presentations and with finals coming up and all. And still quite weak too. Sigh.... She was one of the 4 members of the Dogathon money-making team, where together we faced all sorts of company bigwigs and PR people and bonded as a group as we explored KL and many of its nooks and crannies. We were also in the same group for our 3 week adventure into Sitiawan, which has holds plenty of fond memories. Not to mention the countless chats about just everything. I was really really sad she had to go.

The next day I had another test.

The next day I had 2 tests. That night we also held a farewell party of sorts for my coursemate, but we had to eat at home cause she couldn't eat outside food, so there was buying groceries and preparations and cooking involved, and it took about 3 hours for the cooking to be concluded so we could have dinner. Was super tired out after the days activities, but still had to prepare and study for my clinical pathology presentation the next day. Also one which I had been waiting all semester for. Dunno why I was so unlucky to get both in the same week and the last week at that.

The next day, after the 3 hour clinical pathology presentation, went to Melaka for the Melaka Grand Invitational Endurance Ride. Horses, for those of you not in the know. We were to be the vet assistants, or the scribes, for the line vets at the event. Damn tiring especially after the week I had but really really a lot of fun and a lot of stuff to see and learn. So glad I decided to go. Friday afternoon, we helped with the pre-ride examination, then it was back to the hotel and try to study for the parasite final, but finally succumbing to the very comfortable hotel bed and air-conditioning.

Saturday we left at 11.30am, and after a quick jaunt about town and some yummy coconut shakes with ice cream, we set off to the track. There we helped set up the clinic by lugging boxes and boxes of 3 liter packs of fluids (boy do horses need a lot of fluids) and setting up the IV lines and also performing other sorts of lugging tasks. The first flag-off was at 5.30pm (there was 40 km, 80 km and 120 km events that day), and the horses go into a loop which is about 20 to 30km, come back and get checked by the vets to see if they are still fit to continue, take a 50 minute break, and then go out again. So the 120 km horses would have to come in at least 5 times (there are compulsory re-exams at the end of some breaks) and would end their ride at about 6 am the next morning.

The first horses started coming back around 7.30pm, and from then on there was not much pause with the horses coming and going and trotting up and down to be checked for lameness and us going back and forth getting their log books and time slips. By the time there was a lull, they remembered it was time to feed us and the food arrived. But you couldn't take more than 2 mouthfuls before another horse arrived and we had to get back in position. I must say though, the race organisers must think we eat like horses, as they gave us so much food that they could, as my dean said, 'feed the whole stadium'. Every 2 hours another mountain of food would arrive and we would happily go inspect the offerings.

It was that night that I finally began to be able to regularly detect abnormalities in a horses gait. Previously it was like, uhh how come I can't see anything?? But only the most obvious ones lah. An improvement nevertheless. When alls said and done it was a pretty awesome weekend with the girls and also very enriching, talking with all the vets and looking at all the pretty horses.

By the time I got back to my kolej it was 1pm and I still had to study for my finals which was going to begin the next day (today)! But went to sleep till 6.30pm anyway. Cannot tahan.

So you see what a week it had been. 4 tests, two presentations, 2 unexpected and not very welcome surprises, and one looong night at the races. Still vague on whether I should appeal and try to get a place in kolej or just forget about it and move out. Still waiting for this to end (I still have 2 finals papers this week). Still wondering whether I should laugh or cry (or just go to sleep) after this terribly long and slightly dream-like week.

A Horsey Week

2010-03-07T20:33:00.003+08:00

A free evening, finally. Been dancing every night for the past week for the Rythaswaram performance at K12 last Friday. 20 hours of practicing for a 5 minute performance, which according to the general consensus ended wayyy too fast. I guess we all love the limelight:)

Super glad to see all my dance buddies again though. Didn't think I'd have the chance to dance with them after our last tremendously successful outing more than a year ago.

Been having a rather horsey week though. After a refresher course on horse limb anatomy (during which my class very smart aleckly told the lecturer 'hind limb!!' when in fact it was the fore limb, can't believe us third years still get mixed up like that =_=''''''''), and spending an afternoon trying to see abnormalities in horse radiographs, I spent quite a time in the library reading about endurance horses for my fluid therapy presentation on Monday.

Then yesterday, we were fortunate enough to go see a race at the turf club, and observe horses trotting up and down (even after watching more than 100 horses do that, I still can't even begin to master the art of diagnosing lameness. Perhaps after a few thousand horses I guess:P) , watch the vets do their vet checks, jockeys being weighed (all of them are lighter than me!! mannnn....), the uncles yelling at the horses to go faster as they near the finish line..... But as it was a small low stakes race, the stylishly clad ladies with big sun hats didn't make their usual appearance, at which we were slightly disappointed. Was hoping to catch a glimpse of those big hats. Or perhaps they were all ensconced in the air conditioned boxes. No idea.

After 10 races we were pretty wiped out, got back to kolej, realised I forgot my key and my roommate was out, lepaked and fell asleep at Wen Chee's place, woken up 2 hours later by Vania, spent a couple of hours doing my part of the fluid therapy of the horse presentation, and fell into bed.

Today, with the fiery semangat of the eager to learn (lol, being slightly sarcastic here, still, pretty damn semangat I would say), went back to the turf club to see the post mortem of a horse that collapsed during the race. The four of us had never seen let alone do a horse necropsy before, so we ended up hindering rather than helping the doctor with our fumbling knife wielding skills. Fortunately we had a very patient doctor. After a fair bit of huffing and puffing and bloodying of coveralls, we managed to lift out the heart and lungs for the doctor to examine. And I know its rather macabre of me to say so but that was pretty fun. Wonder when we'll get the chance to do it again.

Well, as much as the lazy bum in me wants to sleep in on the weekends, and the willpower it takes to drag myself out of bed at 6 something on a Saturday morning, I find myself feeling much more inspired to learn more after days like these. Been trying to overcome my sick of studying feeling for quite awhile.

Kinda miss my cat. But after a week like this I'm glad I left him in Penang. He'd be so bored cooped up in the house with me gone at all hours of the day. At least I know he's doing very well :)

The Lull Before The Storm

2010-02-12T13:06:00.002+08:00

Sigh.... Waiting for my family to arrive but still tak muncul-muncul lagi..... Probably stuck in traffic or got lost.

This semester has been so much freer than usual. For the very first time in history we get an afternoon with no lab, which is such a blessing after standing all day in surgery on Tuesday. Classes and labs are relatively easy going, plus no big responsibilities to fuss about anymore. Sempat lagi go to the zoo on Saturdays. Guess they're giving us a break before putting our noses to the grindstone next semester.

Wen Chee made an interesting observation the yesterday (crapping before radiology test, lol). She's born in the year of the Tiger and she has a rabbit. I'm born in the year of the Rabbit and I have a cat. heheh. I guess opposites attract.

Hey, actually, my friend just got an iguana, and he was born... in the year of the Dragon! Hurmmm, what does that mean pulak?:P

huuuuuuu they just called, yay its lunch time:D then it's off to darling Muar Muar Muar. Pretty images of food food and more food are flitting across my mind right now......

Happy Chinese New Year guys XD

Can't Wait For CNY!

2010-01-31T23:34:00.002+08:00

Hummm, don't know how many times I've said this, but I love Chinese New Year!! I love love love CNY. It's the best holiday of the year. Looking forward to all the glorious food, CNY cookies, wonderful company and quaint charm of this small town called Muar.

Bringing the little naughty thing with me, since couldn't find a suitable place to board him. He's getting a bit plump, being cooped up in a tiny apartment all day long. I did devise an enrichment program for him, which consists of balls of yarn tied to a stick, toilet paper rolls wrapped with newspaper with treats inside of them, small paper balls made of my shopping receipts, socks and stinky rabbits we play tug of war with... Poor thing, bet he can't wait to get back to Penang. Gonna miss him though.

Been reading this awesome book about whales. It's called The Grandest Of Lives by Douglas H. Chadwick, who writes for the National Geographic. I've been day dreaming of paddling about pristine waters with these enormous beings cavorting ( they don't, contrary to public opinion, spend all day gliding placidly about with their mouths open, catching fish) about left and right ever since. According to the author and all the researchers in the book, whales are very intelligent beings. Wish I could see for myself.

I wonder if I'm destined for a life of 'voluntary self confinement', as Mr. Chadwick so aptly puts it?

The semester's been pretty uneventful so far. Quite the usual routine, with Monday fading into Friday and then in the blink of an eye, its Monday morning again. Been volunteering at the zoo on Saturdays, in a bid to reduce blankly staring at the walls of my room time, and learning something for a change.

Two more weeks to go till break:)

A Weekend In Kolej

2010-01-03T20:55:00.003+08:00

Well, just spent the better part of the new years weekend in college, down with the flu and cough. Spent the whole of Saturday feeling feverish, and finally put my new digital thermometer to good use (38.5 Celsius!) before I stick it up some animals' butt.

Didn't think to take Panadol till my mum told me to, which got me thinking, since the fever is the body's way of fighting the virus, should or shouldn't I let the fever run its course? And how does Panadol help to bring down the fever? And since you don't use paracetamol in animals (its toxic to some of them), what do you do when they have a fever?

Ok, so I obviously haven't read enough pharmacology.

Well in the end I did take the 2 panadol and went to sleep for 4 hours, and when I woke up the fever had broken and I was feeling a whole lot better.

Been all alone here for most of the weekend. It was quite nice to have the house to myself for awhile.

Mj is adapting, but he doesn't like being confined, and always whining to go out. I take him out for a bit every day, and it's really funny how the whole block now knows the orange cat with the purple collar. I get calls from people telling me they saw MJ, and last night, when I was in my room, someone just opened the door and deposited him in the hallway. He has found every single way possible of escaping this tiny apartment, some of which I still may not know of.

Anyways I let him sleep on my bed, which according to Roger Tabor's Understanding Cat Behavior reduces the stress of confined cats. Go figure. Just hope that I don't wake up one day itching from head to toe.

This Marks The Second Half Of My DVM Student Years

2010-01-01T22:50:00.004+08:00

Well, halfway through, halfway more to go. Can't help feeling a bit excited and also slightly apprehensive at the thought of things finally getting really really serious.

The first week of the new semester was great, and with new resolutions and new determination pervading the air, we got into our new groups and new classes with something that seemed like enthusiasm. With Clinical Pathology, Pathology 3, Parasite 2, Radiology and Diagnostics, Surgery and Anesthesiology, and Clinical Skills this time around, I finally can get into the head of a veterinarian and see what its like being there.

I needed a bit of a change, and hence just in time for new years, Yuan Yih and I went to get my hair cut. Thanks yy for teman-ing:) So last night, my long crop of about 3 years was reduced to a short bob.

I was going to write the words, 'it took some getting used to' but you know what, it surprisingly took very very little getting used to. I am really liking the short hair. It helps that I got a look I love with a 'professional' hair cut (which cost me 50 ringgit!), but still, really like all the airiness and ease and urban chic I pretend I'm oozing. Definitely recommend that hair salon (which someone recommended to me) to anyone who's looking for a good hairdo. The name is Bud Hair Salon at the Mines shopping center.

Hoping this semester will be a better one. Or rather, determined this semester will be a better one. Mentally, spiritually, emotionally and whatnot. I want to stop drifting aimlessly on a endless sea with no map and no stars and no destination to look out for.

Off to a good start so far, I think. Will update more as the year goes by.

Happy New Years!

Cluck

2009-12-11T17:28:00.002+08:00

Currently on my 2nd week in Sitiawan, Perak, at the Dindings Broiler Breeder Farm. Its been a very illuminating experience so far, and the people here are pretty nice and helpful.

There's really a whole lotta stuff to learn, and this is just chicken production, a fraction of our syllabus as vet students. Not that simple, this livestock business. I guess people don't think about it much, chicken is just something you can get easily at the market and restaurants everywhere. But it takes a lot of effort before that chicken arrives at your plate.

The first week, we visited the hatchery, where the eggs come from the breeder farm and are turned into chicks. Its basically a 21 day process and about 100,000 chicks come out of this particular hatchery 4 times a week, and theres a lot of control measures practices to be done which we observed and tried our hand out with in our week there.

The 2nd week, we were at the lab to see how they test for diseases and drug residues in the chickens. Got a chance to try a hand a taking blood from chicks and doing post mortems on them.

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to visit the processing plant where they slaughter the chickens and dress them and saw the further processing into frankfurters and nuggets. Pretty impressive. Lots of big machines and lines of dressed chickens going from one room to the other. And very clean with tight biosecurity measures. We even got to spend a few minutes in one of the -18 Celsius freezers.

The only thing I thought was a bit gory was the chicken slaughtering. A bit like a scene from a horror movie with the place awash with blood. But what do you expect right. I found myself staring for quite a while with morbid fascination at one of the eviseration machines, which sort of presses the intestines out after a hole has been made at the cloaca.

Today we visited a few of the broiler houses. Oh for clarification, broilers are chickens bred for meat, breeders are bred for their eggs which will hatch into chicks, and layers are chickens bred for eggs. Man they have a lot of chickens. It takes about 40 days from chick to chicken heavy enough for slaughter, and one cycle is about 60 days (including cleaning and disinfection and re-preparation of the houses) The manager said they produce 2.3 million chickens per cycle. Phewww do we have an appetite for chickens. Most of the Dindings chickens mainly goes to Mcdonalds.

My turn to bath. We're staying in a rented double story with absolutely no furniture, so been sleeping on sleeping bags and eating our breakfast on the floor, watching anime on the floor, and writing this blog post on the floor too. Though its been very interesting learning about this industry, can't wait to get home next week. Farming, not so much my cuppa tea.

One more week left at the Broiler Breeder Farm. Ganbatte!

Home Sweet Home

2009-11-12T10:53:00.002+08:00

Went back to Penang after my final paper yesterday. Have to maximize holiday time before being packed off to the chicken farm for 3 weeks.

It's kinda strange how these past few days I have been waking up at 7.30am on the dot, without an alarm clock.... Good though. Going to continue with meditation, exercise (yes after a semester of inactivity, its time to get those muscles working again), reading my stack of unopened novels, do my Anaesthesiology homework (yup, there's holiday homework this time), eat lots and lots of good food, see my relatives, go out with my family, meet up with old friends, watch some TV (tv! tv!), etc etc etc for about two weeks before leaving for the chicken practical in Perak for 3 weeks and then back for Christmas again for a week before semester reopens.

So here's the plan. Wake up at 7.30am (means earlier bedtime for me!:)), meditate, exercise, quick shower, and then study for an hour. After that, do whatever I want for the rest of the day. Heheh.

MJs pretty excited about being home. And such a good boy all long drive back to Penang too. Well, who wouldn't when there's nice yummy leftover chicken waiting for him in the fridge the moment he gets back? Even the daughter hasn't got any nice home cooked food yet......;p

Back to my homework. Dr. Chen came in after the paper yesterday and gave us a whole list of stuff we should know before surgery class starts next semester. The way she was talking about live animal restraint and handling and TPRs and drug preparations and concentrations and injection sites and 'if you guys aren't ready it will be very difficult for you and for me' was the last straw. Just the thing to make me stop fooling around with my studies because from now on its know your stuff or get your ear bitten off (by an animal or the lecturers, regardless)

So here's to a very much more productive (in every way), next semester, and here's to the holiday thats going to psyche me up for it!

I Finally Started Studying At The End Of Finals

2009-11-10T18:36:00.002+08:00

Well it's the last day of final studies, with my paper tomorrow at 2.30pm. And it's so hilarious cause I finally got in the mood to study a bit more seriously.

Was it yesterday's blog post? You know, I realise that I tend to feel much better and inclined to productiveness after whining on my blog. So perhaps I should do this more often. Then again, I'm sure people don't want to read about all my crap here. They want to read about The Adventures of Vivi the Vet Student!, and not The Daily Psychoanalysings of Vivi The Vet Student. So I perhaps it's time to get a personal diary......

But seriously, I am in a much better 'I can do anything I set my mind to' frame of mind right now. I can literally feel the information going in this time, instead of mindless staring today. One of the things that set me off was to think of my future patients, and all the animals I'll be trying to help and need to have the knowledge to help.

Slightly unfortunate that this mood came at the imminent start of my hols, but ah well, at least this time I won't waste my holidays by sleeping all week (which I do frequently).

I remember commenting to my friend during my secondary school days, 'I'll do really badly in this exam and so get the motivation to study for the next one.' Pretty lame maybe. But it does to a certain extent give me the jolt I need to get in the appropriate state of mind.

For if don't know my stuff well how can I be a good practitioner of veterinary medicine?

Hmmm..............

2009-11-09T19:57:00.002+08:00

Man, do you know what I just realised? I've been blogging about the same old things over and over again.

I was writing the last post and it seemed that very familiar to me... So I went back and looked at my old blog posts. And I discovered that last year around this time, I wrote 3 posts in October along the same lines. http://vivianthevetstudent.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

And the funniest (and worst) thing is, I put a link there, just like the one above, linking it to yet another similar post written, by me, in 2006.

What they all share is a feeling of sleepwalking life away, wasting too much time actually sleeping, needing direction and purpose in life, and giving all sorts of excuses for achieving below one's ultimate potential in life.

Now its 2009, 3 years after that post. Oh my god. Vivian you haven't been progressing much these past 3 years if you're still blogging about the same things huh?!

Time to Stop Sleepwalking Through Life. Wake Up Wake UP WAKE UP.

Sorry readers, I now need to do a Note To Future Self.

'Vivian Lee Ker Chuon, if, one year later, you are reading this and are still writing blog posts along the same lines, slap yourself really really hard, twice, get up, take out a piece of paper, and............

ah what the hell. Sometimes I think I spend too much time crapping about how I should be or how I could be and never actually getting down to it.

Enough!

Sleeping Beauty Finally Woke Up

2009-11-09T18:20:00.002+08:00

Or more like sleeping pig I guess. I slept intermittently for 3 days and 3 nights (on the living room couch, on my bed, on the chair where I was trying to meditate and ended up sleeping) and finally really woke up just today. It's a vicious cycle of the more you sleep the sleepier you get. And I kept having dreams which proves I was in a really deep sleep too.

The times I was not sleeping were spent staring mindlessly at my notes for todays paper (no comment required) and also, well,......... nothing else really.

What a WASTE OF LIFE.

It's getting harder and harder for me to find the reasons why I conform to the society's ideal of scoring in exams. After 15 years of this I'm still taking endless paper after paper with no idea how to apply this in anything other the life of an academic.

I mean, I just wonder how many hours of my life I've spent in an exam hall.

This semester finals-- 2 hours per subject x 8 subjects =16 hours.

Not including all the tests for each subject (There were 4 tests for Pathology!)

A total of 10 semesters to complete my degree.

Then there was the STPM, SPM, PMR, UPSR, PTS, plus alllllll the other secondary school and primary school tests and exams.

Sigh.... And after 15 years of tests I wonder, do I really function?

But I guess..... I'm not really angry at the system. I'm angry at myself.

The Important People Who Made A Difference in The World wouldn't have wasted 3 days of precious life just waiting for the next exam to start and just sleeping, waking up having breakfast, going back to sleep an hour later (too sleepy) then waking up, having a go at the notes, going back to sleep again.....

Utterly inane way of living life. Bad bad bad bad......

Hoping that when surgery and vet med starts next year I can really start seeing the point of it all. I think..... I really need a break! This semester is taking much longer than usual to finish. The start of the semester when I went to the Selangor Turf Club and helped out at Midvalley for the Dogathon promotion seems really eons and eons ago.

Need some time off so I can set my priorities in order, and come back hopefully reenergized and ready to learn. For in spite of everything I have said about studying in the end I really do want to be a good veterinarian. Somebody who knows what she's doing at the very least.

And I think.... I really want to start dancing again. Heck, I may never be a great dancer, but I want to dance anyway! My heart yearns for dance and music!

A Day At The Cinema

2009-11-06T01:18:00.007+08:00

Yes, I spent the whole day at the cinema today. The Whole Day. And it was a Nice Day.

First we watched The Time Traveller's Wife at 11.40am.

One very uncorny not some old typical love story, that as Shyla says, doesnt really have a real plot but is very very nice anyways. Good acting and chemistry by the very gorgeous Eric Bana and perky hot Rachel McAdams which makes the whole movie tick.

And then at 2pm, Kelvin came along and joined us for the next movie, Michael Jackson's This Is It.

I think the music you listen to becomes a part of your soul and defines you. If that is so then the music of Michael Jackson has definitely played a role in shaping who I am today.

Growing up in the 90s when his music was everywhere and his videos were replayed over and over on the telly, I guess he was quite an important feature of my childhood. His music evokes feelings in me that no other singer will ever quite be able to do.

It's mind boggling how one person can reach out and touch the lives of so many millions and millions of people around the world.... And like those millions of people, I felt bereft when he passed away. Why do you think I have a kitten named MJ?

His music makes you want to dance, makes you want to dream, makes you want to change, makes your heart wrench, makes you want to listen to it over and over again.....

I know I'm not doing him justice here but this is all that I am capable of expressing of this glorious man.

Needless to say I really enjoyed this one.

After a nice lunch cum dinner, we went in for Inglourious Basterds at 5.40pm.

Really enjoyable Quentin Tarantino movie in which the main aim is killing Nazi's and poking fun at them along the way. Superb acting, funky soundtrack, and a really distinct way of story telling that makes it all the more fun. I think I'm going to be a Quentin Tarantino fan after this.

Wow. This is the first time I've watched more than 1 movie at the cinema in a day. Was inspired by Prem who went to two last week. So am currently very broke and that I think is the end of my escapades for this semester.

It was a very satisfactory ending.

Here's MJ indulging his mommy with by posing for a pic with his brand new royal purple collar.

I think he's getting pretty bored cooped up in a small apartment. So that makes two who can't wait to get back home....

A Morning In Ampang

2009-11-01T16:24:00.004+08:00

Now I know why Ampang is one of the expensive green tiles in the Malaysian version of Monopoly.

Was there this morning cause I brought MJ to his already-paid-for-during-adoption neutering (it's compulsory when you adopt from SPCA). More on that later.

Well I dropped him off at 9am and had a few hours to kill, so went to find a place to have breakfast. That area is full of the branded coffee shops and so I just walked into one. RM13 for a plate of toast, tomato turkey eggs and baked beans, plus coffee. Sigh..... (hence my missing lunch and feeling super hungry now)

You can feel the affluence of the area, with its multitude of private hospitals, expensive coffee houses full of people having their brunch, big cars of the roads, sizeable houses, with quite a number of foreign expatriates walking about thrown in for good measure. But affluent in a kind of old way, like it used to be rich but is now trailing behind the likes of Damansara and Mont Kiara.

Lol of course this is purely conjecture from a mornings observation.

After a long breakfast, of which I spent most reading (very swiftly) through my 400 page Art of Public Speaking book which I obtained yesterday and have to finish before the exam on Tuesday, I walked into Ampang Point mall.

Lo and behold, a book clearance sale. Can't resist a book clearance sale!

I Really Have To Stop Buying Books.

In the end, got these 3 for RM 15 :D and another nice and cheap one for a friend's birthday. And these are quite well known authors too.

Mannnn I can't believe I put my name on the emailing list just now to be notified when there's a warehouse sale. Mistake mistake.

Well, back to the topic of neutering.

Which is, for those of you who don't know, making a cat or dog, or in fact any other animal, infertile by surgery. It's a very common procedure done nowadays in an effort to stem the overflowing amount of dogs and cats we have on our streets.

A lot of typical responses regarding this would be 'awwwww is that really necessary?' and 'wah so pity the dog/cat', amongst others.

First of all I guess I understand the feeling. Even I myself, being as a vet student and someone who has gone though much more exposure than a normal person would regarding the necessities of spaying and neutering, felt slightly guilty this morning when taking MJ to the vet. I was, after all, expediting the process of the removal of the balls of one my good friends and companions. (oh I'm so going to have a hard time getting a boyfriend after this:P lol)

But in truth, it really is necessary. To quote the SPCA, there's nothing cruel about being sensible.

Every year, millions and millions of pets are euthanized (put to sleep) in animal shelters around the world, simply because there not enough people who want them. Millions and millions.

In the US alone, according to the Humane Society of the United States, 3 to 4 million dogs and cats are euthanized in the shelters every year. I've seen a video of a crying animal shelter vet, and the emotional burden she has to carry from putting 70 to 80 animals to sleep per day.

At SPCA Ampang just now, up on the white board was the 'in'(abandonments) and 'out'(adoptions) numbers for 2009. The kittens 'in' number was around 2000 plus plus, and the 'out' was about 400. What happened to the rest, well you already know.

What, you thought the SPCA was gonna feed and shelter all the 1600 remaining for the rest of their lives?

And still, many many more roam the streets (look at our own streets), with skinny limbs and ribs showing from the lack of food, troubled by infestations of diseases and parasites, scavenging in rubbish dumps for food and getting injured in fights, and at the same time breeding more and more stray animals to join their fate, an unwanted eyesore to the community.

Is this how we treat our animals?

We domesticated them. We are supposed to take care of them. And yet we let them breed uncontrollably and as a result many suffer tremendously. For which dog or cat knows how to use condoms and contraceptives if they know they cannot support and feed their young, which dog or cat knows how to abstain from sex?

A female cat can have 2 litters of kittens per year. Each litter averages about 4-6 kittens, who will reach sexual maturity in 6 months time.

A female dog can have 2 litters of puppies per year. Each litter averages about 6-10 puppies, who will also reach sexual maturity in 6 months time.

You do the math. So do you see why the stray population is spiralling out of control?

Writing this really chases away any leftover guilty feelings I had from this morning. In the long run, its going to do him good too, health-wise, which I won't go into here. To say nothing of preventing urine-spraying (territorial marking) over all the furniture and reducing his biological urge to escape from the house and go out wandering where he probably will get injured in a fight, hit by a car, or fall off a balcony (again).

The poor thing's still woozy from the anaesthetic. I wanted to ask the vet what anaesthetic she used but I forgot, and I could hear Dr. Chen expressing her disappointment at me in my head on the trip back. His eyes were large and the third eyelids were prominent, with shaking paws and incoordinated movements. He was so clearly terrified so I stuck my hand in the cage and talked to him intermittently (which means I was driving one handedly but it wont happen again so please don't jump all over me parents:P)

I'm only allowed to feed him at 8pm so going to give him a nice treat to make up for it. Wonder if he's up to it though.

Alright already spent much more time then I intended on this. Off to study!

(footnote : wow that public speaking book really got to me with the 'use vivid language to create imagery and visualisation in your audience' stuff:D)

Being Contradictory

2009-10-31T22:52:00.009+08:00

Last night I went to Midvalley with the girls for some nice dinner and shopping.... Mannn shopping is fun!:)

So to put it bluntly, I've come to realise that shopping brings me enjoyment. All the stuff to make a girl look pretty, vivacious, flirty, demure, elegant, sophisticated, bohemian, sexy, stunning, in which to choose and try out from. And I am so lagging behind in the how to make yourself pretty department.

And to think that I used to hate it when I was little. I would always ask to be left at the bookstore to read (books weren't wrapped back then), and I wonder how many books I finished during my time there. My cousin Soo Fern once told me then, 'You'll like it when you grow older', and I remember it till this day. Well, she was right.

I only know about 5 ways to deal with my below shoulder length hair. And only own one pair of going out sandals which I wear with basically every thing ( for class I wear sports shoes). My wardrobe consists of mainly t-shirts. And my make-up..... Well I never wear make-up.

Last night after a very satisfactory dinner at Paddingtons Pancakes and a short whiz through the mall, we got back and I got a free make-up class from my more experienced coursemates Michelle, Wen Chee and Prem.

This belongs to only one of them (Michelle has lots more).

So I was learning what to you should put on, how to put it on, put what on first...... Quite complicated but interesting lah. Heheh. My make-up consists of the stuff below (one of which was a birthday present).

Apparently, I should :

1) buy some nice girly shoes

2) get some essential make-up items

3) never buy t-shirts ever again.

Trips to the shopping mall are fun:)

Don't worry guys, I haven't given up on looking for enlightenment. Just enjoying the materialism along the way:D

How can this post correlate with my previous post I really don't have clue... When two are so completely contradicting and first I say I'm sick with working for all these things that don't mean anything when you die and next I say woohooo I love the feeling of buying something you really like.

Well I had a good day and I don't wanna analyse that any further for the moment:)

Woke up at 7.30am this morning to look for MJ. The naughty boy has gone missing more times than I can count this week. I get really worried when I don't know where he is. Its either out through the window, zoom out when someone opens the front door, or yesterdays feat, falling off our 2nd story balcony.

I couldn't find him last night when I was going to sleep, and I knew all the doors and windows were shut and he had just been rocketing about the house an hour before..... So I thought he was in a room of a friend of mine's.

When I didn't hear his bell this morning, I knew that he wasn't in the house, so I took a walk around to search for him, something I have done A LOT this past week.

Calling for him on the ground floor of our block, I heard a familiar meow. Seeing the little orange head poking out of the balcony on the ground floor was a real relief for me. Since it was raining, he was trapped there, but he seemed very pleased to see me.

His tail was filthy but he's seemed pretty perky for a 3 story fall:)

This is MJ when he was a two month old. He's much bigger now. One thing he does is sit on my notes when I'm reading them. He will literally walk right onto the book and lie down plump in the middle of it.

Judging from the heart attacks he's been giving me I guess I've become quite attached to the little kitty.

Feeling Numb

2009-10-27T22:53:00.002+08:00

Somethings definitely wrong if the thing you look forward to most in the day is meal time. Lunch time, dinner time, tea time, snack time.... It's always , what are we going to eat for lunch tommorow, or hmmmm, what shall we tahpau later on the way back?

And believe it or not that is the high point of my day most days.

Mannnnn I think I'm losing my way again. No, I know I'm losing my way again. What am I here for? What is my purpose in life? Why am I living?

Everything that I'm doing now, all that I strive to attain at this moment in time, will be wiped away when I die. So what's the point of it all?

I find my mind has been very noisy for awhile now. Too many thoughts, clamouring for attention. Was I always this way, or only recently?

It's hard to concentrate. My undisciplined mind wanders and wanders, with all sorts of inconsequential thoughts popping into my head at random. I try to school it back into focus, and sometimes it works, most times it doesn't.

It's kinda numbing, this kinda life. I wish I had my higher purpose in life, that I could wake up to and be happy about, that I could work towards and spend my energies on. Not just any old boring purpose. I want a really inspiring purpose that my life would be dedicated to. One that resonates with my soul (whatever that means:P)

Or is that entirely missing the point? Are we supposed to be just happy with the now and try to get that peace of mind or as Buddhists put it, attain enlightenment?

You know when I was young and I wished upon a star, I used to wish for happiness. And its embarrassing to admit that a 22 year old girl like me still wishes on the first star she sees every night, but I still do. Now I shall start wishing for peace of mind. Perhaps they come in a package?

Why am I writing about this all of a sudden? Well its been on my mind for awhile now. I think its been nagging me for a long long while. I just postpone my thinking about it.

Some may comment and say that this is my search for God. Well I can honestly say that organised religion is so not for me. It may be for some, but so definitely definitely not for me.

Was looking at some articles the other day for some material for my public speaking speech, and came across some interesting stuff about sleepwalking through ones life. And one related topic that caught my interest was the benefits of meditation.

Well been trying some meditation for two days now, in attempt to quieten my mind:P Not sure if its been working so far though.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not depressed. This time I'm far from it. I'm just searching for some meaning in my life at this point.

Hmmm, I think I should come here more often. Very therapeutic, this:)

Well, at this point I would normally apologize for this rambling post but I shan't. So I leave you with this quote that I used to end my speech the other day.

'Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.'

I want to love what I'm doing for the rest of my life!

One Step At A Time

2009-09-17T23:42:00.003+08:00

Now Dogathon is long past and all my responsibilities have flown out the window, I've been trying to recapture myself- motivation. It took awhile, but I think the my brain is starting to warm up again.

Just concluded a few undernourished, sleepy days, finishing my Pharmaco test 2, various assignments, presentations, and the radio show recording for BBI. The end result was, my brand new pair of jeans are now really annoying as I keep having to hike them up. Ugh. I think I should have gone for a size smaller.

Looking forward to bringing MJ home tommorow. Wonder how the family will find him...

Time to sleep.... Leaving at 5am tommorow morning!

Post Event Coverage

2009-08-22T15:02:00.016+08:00

I'm not really sure that it's humanly possible to recap the entire experience but I'm going to try to anyway.

I finally realised yesterday that doing a job like directorship requires you to obtain your satisfaction of a job well done in a very different manner than usual. Its kinda hard to explain. Actually I've been trying to analyse this feeling of mine for the past week, and I think I finally figured it out. I think its something like you can't see the results of all the effort you put in directly.

With other divisions, everything has direct visible results. Example : 1)Sponsor division -> find sponsors -> sponsors come. 2) Programmer division -> plan games -> run games on Dogathon day. 3) Publicity division -> do publicity -> people come. 4) Registration division -> plan and design coupon system -> people use it and like it. 5) Decor division -> paint and cut out -> photos of decor get posted on every single coverage of the event(which is actually getting pretty annoying/tedious, since every single blog post and newspaper article must have one photo of the decor space.. Wong Meng Joo you are truly nuts) and etc etc etc.

Director -> nag people -> arrange meetings -> fetch people around -> nag more people -> uhhh

Lol.

In other words, a leader needs an abundance of self-confidence and self assurance, and be reasonable enough to know instinctively whether they're doing a good job or not, cause if you're waiting for others to give/tell it to you you'll be waiting for a really realllly long time.

Hmmm..... And that isn't such a bad thing to learn after all.

Dogathon day dawned bright and clear after we had a week of rainy days and gloomy skies. The day before, my co-director scattered some dried chilli around the site, which according to him will prevent it from raining. And I must say, that was some really powerful chilli, as it was a scorching hot Dogathon this year. (Apparently according to some of my Malay juniors, I had to throw some lingerie up onto the canopies for the same purpose, but I decided to skip that..... Actually, I don't know if they were joking!??:P)

The place looked amazing, everything went pretty much like clockwork, the new things we introduced got great reviews (the sponsor coupon-collect goodies from stall to stall system, the game coupon system, the no main sponsor concept, the new starting point for dog race.....) Even the demolishment of the existing stalls as I commented about in an earlier post turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we went out and rented a lot of red and white canopies which really contributed to the carnival atmosphere, and saving the equipment team some energy and lorry trips.

Here's some random pics.... Credit goes to Ms Yee Jia Yin of DVM 2:

Registration for the games counter

Opening ceremony

Starting point for Dogathon Carnival Race

Main stage game : Fixing Mr Clown

Main stage game: Doggy Go Round (musical chairs)

Pet-N-You agility competition area

Decor, haha:P

Master Hunt

Would like to post more but it already took me almost an hour to post these.

Attendance was amazing as we only prepared 350 small breed and 350 large breed tags and the small breed ones finished by 9 .30am.... God what a clamber there was to find more tags. In the end there we had a total of 865 dogs grace our event (897 was wrong, there were some repeats), and they brought an estimated 3500 people with them.

The games went very well and the profits were much more than I expected, the 1200 goodie bags finished in no time, and I actually felt our T-shirts was pretty nice and fit our relaxed carnivaley atmosphere theme (it was too big - many comments about that, though I kept reiterating that its the very fashionable oversize baggy tshirt;P), the sponsors were pleased with the crowd and the diverting of the crowd to the stalls, the crowd was happily collecting freebies left and right, the 1st year volunteers seemed to be having a ball looking and petting all the dogs(we were wading through an expanse of dogs at one point), the 2nd and 3rd years had of course seen it all before and anyway didn't have time as many were harried and scampering about their tasks like busy little terriers, but they all were smiling (and sunburnt) at the end of the day. What more can you ask for?

And so the journey ends, having finished our postmortem yesterday and settling all the accounts and reports very soon.

Though it was tough and really tiring, my tenure as co-director was pretty rewarding. I would say that it is one of the more significant things I've done in my life so far. If you turned back time and asked me to take on the post again, knowing what I know now, I'd jump at the chance. (or maybe not:P harhar)

Finito!

Dogathon Week

2009-08-11T11:16:00.003+08:00

Phew, haven't updated in quite awhile. Stealing some time in the DSV while viro presentations are going on.

It's Tuesday already! 4 days left till this day that we have been working for for more than half a year. It took a lot to get to this point and I am really really proud of my amazing team, who have been working tirelessly and now that it is just days away, I'm glad to say that everyone is excited and looking forward to seeing all our plans coming to life, finally.

My stylish and excited associates:P

You would be excited too if you saw the truckloads of stuff we've gotten from our sponsors. Seriously, truckloads. Some are for our own volunteers, but most of the stuff is to be bestowed on all the people who come to Dogathon this Sunday.

Now its down to the last few crucial days... Lots of last prep to do, cutting coupons and organising our mountain of props for Sundays big show( tails up its show time!), getting our logistics, human resource allocation and our flow of events down, from Friday morning prep day, all the way to Sunday afternoon clean up.

T-shirts and booklets and goodie bags coming today.... Thank god I finished my tests and assignments already.

What I need now, is all my lovely compulsory volunteers to show up at the correct times, a sunny Sunday, and a lot of dogs and people.

Not too much to ask right?:D

My Week In Photo Form

2009-07-19T19:36:00.007+08:00

Hey dad, thought you might like to see this :

However, last Wednesday.....

Luckily:

In the meantime, I had a great time at the Masquerade Party on Saturday:

The crisises are dealt with and done for, and me and my co-director are now in the medic fac prepping for a general meeting on Wednesday. Tommorow is my interview on RTM 2 (and my first time on national TV!) with Dr. Kalthum, talking about Dogathon.

Alls well.

A Better Frame of Mind

2009-07-12T20:46:00.002+08:00

As I read back my last post, it occurs to me that its a little weird and self-centered. Perhaps a little too much of wallowing in self-pity?;P

Feeling better, and excited even, about the next few weeks. No matter what happens, no matter what obstacles we might encounter, the show will go on as we visualised it, if not always according to our plans. New plans can always be made, and as my co-director very kindly reminded me, we should stop thinking of the problem and think of the solutions. Stop thinking about who is to blame and start thinking of the solutions.

And after some serious thought, all that has happened may be good luck in disguise after all.... Making us work more efficiently, plan logistics more clearly, and making our Dogathon day look even more classy and stunning.

I wonder what this next week will bring?

The Continuation of a Crappy Day

2009-07-11T00:07:00.002+08:00

And the crisis's just keep on coming........

They want to take Bukit Ekspo on the 15th. Of August. A day before Dogathon. Some event thing that some bigwig wants that we might not be able to to say anything against.

With the stalls gone and the electricity wiring undone, we need to set up earlier rather than later!

There's just so much to set up..... We usually start on Friday, which would be the 14th in this case. Two days of prep, setting up canopies (last year, 25 canopies, took us one whole day; this year with no stalls.......... 40!! can you imagine??!!), the main stage, the 3km dog race, the mazes for Master Hunt and Sixth Sense, the booths for registration, physical examination for dogs, amusement park area, parking areas and directional signboards and information signboards...

Mobile toilets, hundreds of chairs and tables, Pet-N-You agility stuff, MKA stuff, all the prizes and goodies and goodie bags, decor stuff (huge cardboard clowns and elephants and tigers and unicorns this year), and all the paraphernalia for the dog games...... All have to be brought in by lorry and set in the proper positions. And just so you know, all this moving and heavy lifting and setting up and riding about in lorries and tractors is done by our very own little army of vet students whose only pay is a free T-shirt and a goodie bag.

Not to mention all our sponsors who usually come in on Saturday to set up their booths!

What in the world......

Start setting up on Saturday afternoon? People will come as early as 6.30 am on Sunday!!

I just can't bear thinking of all my team's tireless efforts gone to waste. Some have worked so hard these past 8 months to make this thing a reality. There's going to be new concepts introduced, and we've been looking forward to putting them into action, as we think that its going to be very warmly accepted by the Dogathon regulars and newbies alike, as an improvement from the previous years.

Dogathon is definitely going to be on the 16th, it's just whether we have the time to set everything up as near perfect as its going to get.....

I'm just really really honestly thankful for my really supportive and hardworking team. I'd probably be crying in my room without them.

Even though I am a super nag queen, and I know I've offended or irked some of them very very recently (and others in the past too), they are still with me and and ever ready to do their jobs when I ask them to.

Expressing appreciation for that is beyond me right now in this slightly overwhelmed state.

It is the first week of semester after all.

My coursemates (and other close friends) have been incredibly supportive, telling me to chin up and everything will work out in the end. When I, as their leader, should be the really positive one, the one in charge of the reassuring.

But I think I've done a good job of putting on a brave face so far this week. I'm not about to break down now. In fact, I'm not nearly half as stressed as I should be. I think it's the MTM stress conditioning factor.

Time to go to sleep. Much to do over the weekend.

Good Luck In Disguise

2009-07-10T14:19:00.003+08:00

Sigh..... What a crappy week.

Started out ok, just quite tired from the long standing hours at Pet World Malaysia. Then we found out that those that were exempted from English class in the first year have to take 6 credits of English before we graduate, which is really reallly dumb. So now we have an extra 6 hours of English class to go to this semester.

Then we found out that the permanent stalls plus all the electricity wiring that we use at Bukit Ekspo for Dogathon every year is being torn down. And they didn't even inform us(we already booked it last semester), and if we hadn't gone for a site visit with our sponsors last Wednesday, we wouldn't know at all. Imagine finding out 3 weeks before Dogathon. So now we have to go find canopies to rent and a contractor to do the wiring.

And all sorts of other stuff. Which I won't go into in detail here.

Well, weekend's coming up..... Meetings on Saturday and Sunday too. And assignments and reading to do. Committee members to nag and placate. Dogathon things to get in order. A kitten I've got to buy things for.

Ahhh I'm in a crappy mood, and this is a crappy post, so I'll stop here.

Good Feng Shui

2009-07-02T21:44:00.003+08:00

Just moved into my nice new room on the 2nd floor. Had the good fortune to have a roommate who's permitted to get early registration to college.

I really like this place. It's airy, clean, has a nice view, and its on the 2nd floor - much more private and secure. Unlike my last damp, cockroach infested ground floor room, where friends frequently pass by and boo loudly at you to see if you jump. And it was right next to the washing machines which go off (TEET TEET TEET TEET TEET......) every hour or two.

Feels like good feng shui for the new school year.

Been having some bad luck these past few weeks..... Hope my new feng shui will chase it all away:P

Meanwhile, I had an awesome time practicaling at the Selangor Turf Club. Those who want to go into the equine industry should definitely do a stint there. But be warned, you should first borrow a lot of equine books from the library, and have your Merck's Manual and Saunders Dictionary ready, and be prepared to do follow-up reading. And read up on your anatomy before you go. Especially the limbs.

My two weeks there were really eye-opening, as we got to see a lot of diagnostic work going on (mainly lameness cases), routine work at a race track, which includes drenching and vitamin injections and IV boosters, one or two surgeries, and observe life at the race course.

We learnt(or rather, tried to learn) what a horse that is lame walks and trots like, what a colicky horse looks (and sounds) like, what Monday Morning disease/tying-up/rhabdomylosis is, how to vaccinate a horse through the trapezius muscle in the neck, what x-rays and ultrasounds of the lower limbs look like, what shockwave therapy is..... There's really a ton to learn in the little space of time we were there.

Definitely want to go back soon. The vets there are all really friendly, and have so much to teach, if you know how to ask the right questions that is. The 3 of us must've asked some really dumb questions at times, but we could still use the excuse that we were 'only 2nd year':P (No more chance of that, 3rd year in 3 days time!!) All the staff kept calling us 'the kids' all the time (I think it was the height), and were always cracking jokes and telling funny anecdotes, and all in all, it was one of the best pracs I've been to so far.

Went home a record-breaking 4 times this hols. Gotten quite used to the KL-Penang-KL route by now. It's just so nice to lepak at home. Didn't plan on going back so many times, but got kinda homesick.... Anyway, in total it was only about 2 weeks at home out of the two month hols, so you can't say I wasn't working hard, eh?

I really love my home. I really like Penang. Penang penang penang penang penang.....

Off to Pet World Malaysia at Midvalley tommorow! Will be promoting Dogathon there over the next 3 days. Time to see what all the hype is about.

6 more weeks to D Day and (relative) freedom!:P

A Very Tiring Day

2009-05-28T20:30:00.002+08:00

We broke a record today. Started out at around 10.30am and just got back not long ago. We met four sponsors today! Went to Puchong, Klang and Subang Jaya, and I'm quite proud to say we managed to find all 4 places successfully, though we got a little lost along the way.... I'm not that pro yet.

Ahh, the people we meet during these visits... I must say, though it's been quite tiring, it is really fun to meet all these people involved in the pet industry. I got a lot of insights, facts (some people give us whole hour long talks on nutrition, the pet industry etc), namecards, free stuff...

And since we decided not to do the main sponsor thing this year, we've had to really try our hardest to get all our 9 games adopted, so we would have great prizes for each one, and get enough money to cover all the printing costs and Dogathon expenses. We've gotten really smooth at the sales talk.

I'm very happy to announce that we secured all 9 adopters of games last week, and have made enough to cover our budget (with a bit left over). All right sponsor team!!

On another note, was quite disappointed with my exam results for two of my subjects (the others aren't out yet, and if they are.... I don't know if I dare to look). Got a B for both Anatomy and Bacteriology. Thats like a GPA of 3.0.... And I was really into Bacti! Sigh... I'm comforting myself with the fact that in my academic history, I've always started out really badly in the beginning (Standard 2-super crappy; Form 1, moderately crappy; Form 6, quite crappy) and somehow at the very very end, I just really get my act together.

Just hope that this time, it won't be too late..... It's no big government exam this time. This time it's studying to be a veterinarian and 4th and 5th years are the gruelling clinical years, with a whole big final year project and a scary external examination board exam at the end of it...

Added to that, half next semester will be devoted to Dogathon. And I'm taking Pharmacology and Virology and Parasitology next sem! Arghh.... They all sound really interesting but when you have a hundred things on your mind....

Wrapping up sponsorship these two weeks. Phew. Whats left is collecting all the ads and logos and cheques, and next will be the printing phase, and then the publicity phase. I don't even want to go into the equipments and programmes and registration and VIPS and prizes and souvenirs and decor. Huh, which reminds me, I'd better look into the food division, and try and make all traces of polystyrene packaging (white coffins) disappear (mostly in case my dad shows up at Dogathon:P).

My studies..... Can wait a little longer. I hope.

Adding A Bit More Meaning

2009-05-19T22:05:00.004+08:00

Phewww, kinda tired..... Just spent the day driving around, went all the way to Klang for a sponsor meeting, then after lunch it was straight to Petaling Jaya for another one.

Am really really really really happy that all the 9 Dogathon games have been adopted by various companies. We've just about reached our target for sponsorship!

Still a whole lot more to do though. And to think, all this work, just for a half day event!

There were times I think that no way its worth it, and I was such a dumbass for taking this on. Especially during the exam period. Just completely lost it for a bit.

But recently Dogathon has been becoming more meaningful to me.... I mean, when you think about it, it really is a win-win situation for all.

The sponsors who want to promote their product, get real good exposure on the day.

The people and dogs who come for Dogathon who get tons of free stuff and the chance to win great prizes (see i'm naturally talking like a PR person now:p), not to say have some great fun with their dogs and their families.

And last but definitely not least, the vet students who organise the Dogathon, who really gain in many ways, experience-wise.

And helping to create this situation and holding it together... Well its something I'm learning how to enjoy.

There are definitely highs and lows, and just like a wave, it goes up and then down and then back up again. I just fervently hope that all this ends on an 'up' wave. For everyone.

It will. I'm making damn sure it will.

3 more months to go!

Surprise! -- Family Weekend

2009-05-13T23:09:00.004+08:00

Brought my surprise home with me this time.

heheh. We had fun watching Fullmetal Alchemist on the bus ride home.

Went home to watch my sister in concert and also it was Mother's Day weekend....

And she made chocolate chip cookies for us:D Yum yum yum yum yum.

Lazy to post, but the records are here:P

Conquering KL

2009-05-04T22:36:00.007+08:00

After spending 3 hours studying last night, woke up bright and early for my practical test this morning.

Two non-KLites (one from Penang, one from Taiping) were going to try to find their way through the maze or roads and highways to see a sponsor for Dogathon in Petaling Jaya, which by the way, they have never been to or even been driven to.

Hence, I spent last evening analysing Google Maps, looking for landmarks that I know, places I've been to and roads that I've been on, and finally determining the fastest route to Menara Mutiara Majestic on Jalan Othman, Petaling Jaya.

It actually got pretty addictive after awhile. It's just such a relief to finally know where everything lies in relation to one another. I know where Cheras and Ampang are, and Subang Jaya and Damansara and Puchong are on the opposite side, whilst Kepong is on top and Sepang is below. I followed the MRR2 and the LDP and the NPE as they wound through the map, and really, I learnt so much in one night. I reckon I can find my way around KL pretty well after this:P

But just in case, Michelle and I left at 9.30am this morning for the 11am meeting. Followed the Sungai Besi expressway to Jalan Kuchai Lama and Old Klang Road, which led us into Jalan Templar of PJ and then Jalan Othman.

And we reached there at oh, about 9.53am. Damn. We spent the next hour reading newspapers and doing sudoku.

Guess I aced that practical:P

It was one heady morning, as the meeting went really well too and we got Royal Canin to be one of our sponsors.

Had a nice week in Kluang -

500 acres of farmland, with green green pastures and cool calm lakes and fresh air. It was my first experience at a dairy farm.
It was more like Fitness Week than practical week, and I woke up the first few days aching in every muscle and with back pains like an old grandma. Lugging high power water hoses around to clean cattle pens, shoveling soya bean into the wheelbarrow and then into the trough, working in the milking parlor.....

One good (it depends on how you look at it) thing came out of this practical, which is I am now really quite indifferent towards faeces. Shit, in other words. Working in the milking parlor, all of us got splattered at one time or another, and I even caught some of one particularly nasty dump in my hair. It was our last day though, and after that we still happily went off to take photos by the lake, dung and all.

I happily report that no white coffins were used by myself (and my friends, most of the time) during this practical.

I always come back from practicals feeling so lucky and grateful to be a vet student. So far it has taken me to many places, and given me so many experiences you wouldn't normally have, like getting kicked by a cow. My coursemate Purshyla said precisely that after getting kicked by one in the milking parlor.

Every place you go to has its own 'feel', and Kluang town was no different. Managed to borrow one of the farm workers battered old car on the last night and we all piled in to do a bit of exploring. It really is a quaint little town.

So was Tanjung Sepat, and Taiping, two other places I've gone to for practicals. Getting a glimpse of life in these small towns of Malaysia somehow makes me feel more Malaysian.

It is funny though how at Kluang, all the food sellers seem to have never seen Tupperware or food containers brought by a customer before. Reducing waste is a totally alien concept. We got strange looks and an old ah pek who laughed at us saying 'why don't you just bring your whole rice pot?':P

Well its off to sleep and more work tommorow......

My Green Pledge, Amongst Other Things

2009-04-26T01:18:00.009+08:00

Haven't been online for a couple weeks, mostly due to a crappy connection, and a little bit due to finals.

Sort of lost it these few weeks.... Been telling people I'm so over-relaxed its making me slightly stressed, if that makes any sort of sense. Lol. One of my juniors told me to try it the other way around, but I don't think it works that way.

Well, I sorta lost the will to study, and have been crazily gorging on movies and ebooks. What happened to the girl who cried cause she didn't get number one in class and got 65 marks for her history test? Gone and no more to be seen, thats what.

We spend twenty years, TWENTY, being tested and tested and we don't know if we will really work or not. When is real life going to start? Or is this real life?

I really admire my papa (haha, I never call him that, but it just sounds cool), for all his environmental work. Reading his blog is inspiring. Here's someone trying to make a difference (and has). And I always get a fun reaction when I tell my friends my dad has a blog. Check it out at Kampus Sejahtera.

As a daughter of course I have sworn off polystyrene, refuse plastics at the counter, and recycle all I can. I do not allow people to 'tahpau' in polystyrene (it's banned) when riding in my car and when I can, I encourage people not to use plastics by pointing out much rubbish they're generating. Especially the little thin red and yellow plastics you always get.

But its a long uphill hike towards even reducing the consumption of plastics and polystyrenes by even a little bit... Amongst students, you look around you every day and see so many 'white coffins' that it makes your head spin.

This is a typical day at a green rubbish bin outside my house in kolej.

This is how it looks after a weekend with no cleaners to clear up the garbage. Note the polystyrene 'white coffins' scattered over the floor.

There's one rubbish bin like this outside in every wing on every floor in my kolej. So 4 wings times 5 floors is 20 rubbish bins filled like the first photo, every single day.

Thats just for my block. There are four blocks in this kolej. Cleaners will come every weekday morning to clear out the rubbish bins and bring them here : -

This is the Rumah Sampah (Garbage House in Malay) for Blocks A and B. Pheww.

So this is my pledge.

I pledge to refuse to use polystyterene for food ever again. Which means no MacDonalds breakfasts for the rest of my life, unless they change to something else that is. Ooh, and going hungry at all the faculty events:( Except Dogathon 2009:P). And I will refuse plastic bags unless absolutely necessary, and try my best to promote the idea amongst my friends.

Better get off to bed. Leaving for Kluang by bus for a one week ruminant practical tommorow. Am now staying at a friend's house in KL, and will be here a lot this hols working for Dogathon.

2nd Year's Done

2009-04-09T16:49:00.001+08:00

Going to my last class for this second year...

Almost done.

Firel Drills and McDonalds

2009-04-09T14:07:00.002+08:00

Ok I did like crap for the oral test. Serves me right. But going to stay positive and say there's still a chance of gettting an A. Study study study!

Finished the Twilight Saga at 2.20am this morning. Just in time to go down and help the new MTMs with the fire drill. Seems like quite a lot of people were burned to death in the end anyways. Haha. My roommate even slept through the whole thing as she didn't hear the alarm. Talk about a deep sleeper.

So we finished up at 5.30am and had the sudden inspiration to go out for breakfast. So me Shyla and Sharon went off to McDonalds... Dad you know whats coming...

Hehe, I am going to be honest and say that I was a hypocrite and had McDonalds breakfast which comes with a whole array of polystyerene, packaging, and plastic knives and forks. We very guiltily enjoyed our pancakes and coffee and crept home to reach kolej and fall into bed at 7am.

Sorry Dad. Or should I say, sorry to Mother Earth?:P

Feeling a bit crappy cause we did a bad presentation and my group got the worst of it with the lecturer just an hour ago. And somemore it was a 're-presentation' cause we were asked to go back and do it again after we presented it last week.

Really downs your confidence a bit, when you don't do a good job. For me at least.

P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E eh?:P Yeah, it's incentive to do much better in the future.

Sorry groupmates! We'll learn and we improve eh?

Books = Drugs

2009-04-08T13:40:00.002+08:00

Every once in awhile I get sucked back into my one all-consuming addiction.

I miss meals, sleep at 5 am, don't care if there's a test the next day and generally become really distracted. The only way to stop, is to finish the book.

It doesn't help if you're reading a 4 or 5 book series.

Can you believe I've read about 8 novels in the past week and a half?

This life long addiction of mine started when I was very young, in primary school I suppose. I would go through them voraciously, especially the kind of books where getting called away and having to put them down is a physical pain.

I am seriously not exaggerating.

Mystery, horror, romance, fantasy, sci-fi, classics, chick-lit, books about normal (or abnormal usually) lives and conflicts, biographies, inspirationals, self-help, award-winning, obscure, fiction, non-fiction....

Going to the bookstore or the library (the really big ones) where you're surrounded by rows and rows of books is my idea of heaven:)

I probably like the fantasy ones the best though. Wizards and demons and faeries and magic, dragons and swords, battles between good and evil, complicated fate/destiny/quests plots..... I think I just like getting lost in a world where supernatural things happen.

And the excitement when you start reading a book that really pulls you in and you realise you're just on the 5oth page and there's 500 pages more to go (in small type).... That doesn't happen often, but I could jump up and down (literally) when it does.

Its like you're an adventurer who just discovered this whole new exciting world to explore, you know?

I am so nerdy.

But this love of reading is truly one of the the best gifts my parents gave to me. I am so glad that my parents decided to start reading aloud to me since I was two weeks old.

Actually waiting for my bacteriology oral test at 3.30pm....

Can't wait to get back to my vampires and werewolves.

Sharon Nisha a/p Karthipan, my drug source, you owe me a drink for getting me in this mess so close to finals.

Staying Sane

2009-04-05T11:55:00.002+08:00

I want to be a lady of leisure.

Or, at least, a lady that gets to walk around shopping malls and watch a movie with my bro without getting messaged about the latest crisis I have to handle.

Not withstanding all the fun and things I've learnt (you do get a lot of exposure to the world of small animals and canines especially, of course) so far whilst organising this event, I don't think I ever want to take up a post in a committee ever again. Ever. Or, at least, not as director. Not while I'm studying and have to think about exams and presentations and assignments on top of everything else.

I want to have free weekends without worrying about anyone else besides me again.

I want to laze about and read and watch movies without the niggling 'multiple things to do list' at the back of my head.

I want to stop worrying so much about every single aspect of this event.

I want to focus on my studies. I want to actually 'go back and read up' when Dr. Shanti says go back and read up.

Selfish of me isn't it.

Not that stressed now actually. Guess my HSPs are multiplying. And my locus coerelus fires at a higher threshold. My confident-everythings-going-to be-fine face is still holding well at most times:P

I just want something ....... more. Meaningful to me I guess. I just can't search for it for all the distractions.

In the meantime... Many people are looking to me for motivation and coordination. This selfless great team is something to be thankful for. And I won't let them down. I'm confident of that at least.

Time to buckle down and suck it up.

New Juniors Coming In Soon

2009-03-12T13:54:00.002+08:00

Well, pretty soon anyway. I'm going to be in 3rd year and there will be a whole new batch of new juniors already. The first years still seem pretty new to me.

Got a message from a junior in my old school, to tell me she got 4.0 in her STPM. We've been in contact occasionally since last year, as she wants to study vet med and needed some encouragement to face the terrifying end-of your-school-life-determine-your-whole-future exams. Now she's got her four flat, people are as usual asking her 'are you sure this is what you want to do' and 'do you really like animals that much' and whatnot. Normal lah for aspiring vets in this country.

Well she told me she was going to think it over and call a few people, and I'm glad to say she stuck to her dream in the end, and she's going to put it as her first choice. Will hopefully see her come July.

One day in the future, there will come a time when it will be really difficult to get into vet med (even if you get 4.0) and when people hear you are thinking of studying vet, they will instead ask 'do you think you can handle it?'.

Someday....

Annddddd..... Here We Go Again

2009-03-09T02:24:00.002+08:00

Going back in a few hours. As usual, don't know whether to sigh or to be excited.

Just spent the morning tinkering with my page, cause I suddenly decided the title was very super boring looking. I think I quite like the new one.

I think I'm quite an ambitious person. Ever since I was young I felt like I was born to do great things, make an impact on many people. As to precisely how, I have no idea. And why I feel this way, I always wonder.

I am constantly searching, searching for answers, searching for something which I have no idea what it is yet. I only know that it will bring me inner peace. And I will be able to stop searching.

Andddd, this is what happens when you let me loose on my blog at 2.30am. Off to dreamland where everything is possible and I can have me some peace....

The Surprise

2009-03-08T00:26:00.002+08:00

Everything went as planned:P That was one fun surprise!!

Suddenly decided to make a trip home for the weekend as some events were postponed and there was nothing too important going on. Besides, it's my cousin's daughter's first birthday tonight, so decided to come home to kepoh. Heard there's a 200 ringgit birthday cake. Wonder what the wedding will be like.

Secretly made plans with my dear sister to surprise my parents , and she actually got scolded in the process, poor thing....:P Shall have to get her a nice birthday pressie.

The plan was, my friend would drop me off at my old school, and I would wait there, while my sis told my parents that she had to get something from her friend (who would be at school). The problem is my sis can't drive yet so she has to get my parents to drive her.

My mom's reaction was the funniest. According to Jillian, she very seriously asked my sister, "eh, what is Vivian doing sitting there?" as she was stopping the car:D hahahahahaha

And Shyla thought my dad would have guessed already:P When we got home he was in the toilet, so me and my sis sat in the bedroom just waiting for him to pass by and notice (which he very nearly didn't). My mom had to say something like 'eh they all hungry already", and my dad was wondering 'who is they?" before he turned around and saw me:P hahahahahah

They had no idea at all:P huhu, proud proud:D

Haha, my associate kena marah cause I was late and she already told them about it two hours before and was waiting and waiting for my message... Sorry sis.... You turned out to be a good actress after all:P

In my (almost) two years in UPM, have never yet been back for the weekend. Quite tiring lah, and it is a rather long way. But considering I won't get to come back till May and how I'll be busy in KL with Dogathon for most of the sem break, and also the thought of surprising my parents, it was really a must to come back this time. Very worth it:D

Just had a nice warm dinner and spent the evening watching Red Cliff 2 with my parents. Poor sis is studying for exams. Oh yeah, I've got two tests next week, but tests are irrelevant when you're in your hometown. I'm sure there's a law about it somewhere.

Ahhh, bliss....:P

Greetings From The Land Of Non-Stop Activities

2009-03-03T20:42:00.003+08:00

I'm Backkkkkk......:P

Haven't posted in awhile. Haven't even been online actually. Opened my facebook account and there's like 94 friend requests. Pening!~

Oh my god soooo pening. Spent an hour typing up this post and it when I click save, it goes to the dreaded Page Not Found thingy. I haaate the kolej line. Thanks Julie for borrowing the wireless broadband modem:P Now I have to retype the whole thing at 12 am. Stupid stupid stupid. But what to do, I think its time to get my thoughts down.

Well, as I was saying earlier (grrrrrr...), its so surreal that my tenure as a MTM is ending very soon… Its sort of strange to realise that I won’t be called down for meetings and events frequently anymore. Orientation Week and Pembantu Universiti doesn’t seem like a year ago. The day I became Bendahari of MTM doesn’t seem like a year ago (although it really was one year ago). Soon it'll be a repetition of that day, but I'll be on the other side. After that, I’ll just be a co-director of Dogathon.

It sounds funny when I put it like that, ‘just be co director of Dogathon’, but I actually do feel relief when I think of that impending time. I think of it as sort of a luxury, worrying only about one thing.

So far, organizing a Dogathon has been all I expected. Dizzying yet exciting. It is really great how such a big event is organized by the students of one faculty, and how they manage to pull it off every year. From the setting up of games, getting a huge ton of equipment, getting companies to sponsor all our expenses, prizes, goodie bags, to decorating our site to match the annual theme, and planning publicity to get hundreds of dogs and thousands of people to come to Dogathon, each year students go through a lot getting stuff done.

And managing a workforce of about 150 vet students from first and second year, who are always busy with a multitude of activities, tests, assignments and misunderstandings….. phew…. We haven’t even counted the 70 new first years coming in next semester, who are our ‘compulsory volunteers’ (just something our class rep said when we were in first year, we like to bring it up now and again:P). Or rather, as my co-director likes to put it, 70 junior Team Members. So that makes a Dogathon Team of about 220 vet students.

Last year we had about 700 dogs and 2000 plus people and got into the Malaysian Book of Records for the Largest Gathering of Dogs too. Wokaayyy, I think I'd better stop before I start to sound like an advert for Dogathon. I'll just leave that to my Head of Publicity.

But anyways it is really cool when you realise that the whole event is in your hands and you can do anything you want with it...

Well, stepping down in approximately 2 weeks time..... The year really flew by this time. Its been great fun, and no regrets. Seriously.

I wonder how it will feel on August the 17th?
(Dogathon is 16th of August:P)

Oh oh, one last thing, planning a surprise for some people this weekend:D So people, whoever you are, prepared to be surprised;P

The New Improved Bulletin

2009-01-15T23:17:00.002+08:00

Finally finished my tenure as Veternak bulletin editor with Yuan Yih today. Passed out the bulletins to all the DVMs and can finally retire.

I get such a sense of achievement reading this issue. It just so so much better than the first one we published! It makes good reading, looks very much classier, and I've been getting really good feedback for it so far:)

It was just so satisfying, walking into the Anatomy lab this afternoon and wondering why my whole class was really quiet for once, and then was pleasantly surprised when I saw everyone holding a copy of the bulletin. So I just had to post something, just for remembrances sake:P

The Transition

2009-01-01T20:16:00.003+08:00

Got ambushed last night. Some bored coursemates came knocking at the door at midnight and yelled Happy New Year while spraying foam in my face. Laughed like crazy and then I happily joined the band of New Year revellers and went about kolej looking for other people to attack.

Good start to a good day of the new year.

I can still recall how tired we were last year when we went to Bukit Bintang for the countdown, stayed out all night, till the KTM started again at 6am in the morning, got back to kolej at 8am, and slept for half the day and woke up at 2pm. That was New Years Day 2008. And what a tiring and full year it turned out to be! Tiring, challenging, plenty of extremities of emotion and triumps and failures.

Hmmm.... I have a good feeling about 2009:)

Haven't been in the mood to blog much, because of Lazy Holiday Syndrome, but in essence, I went to Vet Camp, MTM camp, practical at a pig farm in Tanjung Sepat and chicken farm in Penang, and spent a week in the Gold Coast with the family. My holiday in a sentence.

Good to be back though. Somehow everyone thought to change their hairstyle in the same holiday. It seems like everyone's happy and excited to see each other and positive about the new sem.

Currently in a happy mood:)

Alone With My Thoughts

2008-11-23T01:11:00.000+08:00

Had a great drive home today. Left kolej around 7.30am and just drove off into the sunlit treelined highways feeling very free and eager to be home, and yet just enjoying the ride and finally being alone with my thoughts. And navigating my way through KL, looking out for increasingly familiar landmarks and passing all the usual towns on the way back improves my confidence somehow. Probably cause I made it back safely.

When you leave KL to the North, the signboards all say Ipoh cause that’s the biggest next city. Its only after Ipoh that the words Pulau Pinang appear. I can’t tell you how nice a feeling it was to finally see the ‘Pulau Pinang 140km’ on the green highway signboard.

It felt very liberating, driving alone home to Penang all by my lonesome. Kinda adult and grownupish. Lol. A fitting end to a semester that has made me grow up quite a bit. I can sense the change in me.

I wonder what you feel when you’re alone with yourself is what people feel when they’re alone with you.

It was great though. Spent most of the drive listening to old CDs I haven’t touched in ages. And it was sunny and bright all the way. Now to my five weeks of beautiful relaxation.

I’m home!

Looking Forward To A New Start

2008-10-23T13:16:00.003+08:00

Oooohh, so looking forward to going home and growing some mould as the chinese like to say for 5 weeks. Classes are over! To think I have finished half of my 2nd year already. And it felt so so long, and yet passed by in an instant. I wonder if all my semesters will be feel like this.

Yay, death to the ruminant and non-ruminant production!:P Just finished both papers. 5 more to go! Not that I hated them completely. As I was just telling my roommate, in fact I gained a lot of exposure and rather enjoyed non-ruminant production classes, its just that I did very badly in both subjects. Lol.

Feeling kinda drained. In production terms I guess you would say I'm just after the peak of the lactation curve and all my body reserve has been used up in production of milk for the piglets or calves or whatever and nutrients and rest are needed to regenerate tissues. Just a metaphor. Haha.

Been thinking about this actually. I can't expect to produce and produce excellent results all the time, especially with all the other stuff I'm involved in producing results with. The lactation curve doesn't go on forever. Lol. My dad's right, I've quite enough A's to be satisfied with for some time.

And as my cousin says, don't be so hard on yourself. Anyways, vets don't have first or second class degrees:) They're just like medical doctors, with pass or fail results. Though there are prizes for best students and stuff.

Looking forward to finishing up all my exams, go to vet camp, them mtm camp, then a one week practical at a pig farm. Then I'm home free!:)

And I Need To Stop Whining;)

2008-10-04T03:28:00.002+08:00

Watching movies about dance always puts me in a good mood:)

Well, here I still am, writing in my blog at 3.30am. I don't like to leave it on a depressing note, ya know?

I really need to stop whining. I know I like to share my woes with everyone, like for example my lesser than satisfying grades, when really, all I need to do is just get down to it. I really need to stop giving all these excuses and Just Do It.

Sounds easy when you put it that way.

So from now on, I will say no more about how I did academically this semester.

Looks like holidays are over...:)

I Need Direction

2008-10-04T00:15:00.003+08:00

I slightly ruined my holiday by bringing back a stack of books to study and then not doing any studying at all. As usual setting personal tasks and not achieving them makes that sense of guilt engulf me and I am finding myself in a bad mood. And I still can't find it in me to study.

Went back and looked at an old post of mine. It was written on the 29th of December, 2006.

http://vivilee87.blog.friendster.com/2006/12/what-am-i-supposed-to-do-with-my-life/

And I look at myself now, nearly two years later...... Am I nearer to finding 'it'? Have I finally found my life's work and am now, currently, striving towards the reason for my existence on earth.

It doesn't feel like it.

And it doesn't feel good.

I feel like I'm going through each day on automatic mode. It's kinda hard to describe. Purshyla gets it. You don't realise you're in automatic mode until you sit still and really look, I mean, really really look around you, and realise that hey, I'm here, I'm here in my own house, my nice brand new comfy house, and you really see all the little details around you, the flower carvings on the clock, the black reflectiveness of the TV, the yellow furryness of the couch. And your mind seems so much clearer. Oh I know I sound a bit nuts. But this is how I feel.

It feels like waking up from a dream. But yet its not a dream because you clearly remember doing all those things. Perhaps.... Perhaps its like I've been living inside myself? Maybe its being caught up in your own mind, thinking too much, about possiblities, problems, solutions, memories, that the outside world is partly shut out?

I once read an article about how our minds filter out unnecessary things. In this increasingly crowded and high tech world we have, there is so much to stimulate our minds that if our minds let it all in, it would be a sensory overload. So maybe we have to shut out part of the world most of the time. And only emerge when it's quiet and calm.

Oh enough of the crazy talk.

I've really failed this semester as an academic student. I did improve on test 2 but expecting a pretty damn low CGPA this semester, like less than 3.5.

Some may say I'm too hard on myself or grades aren't the most important thing or I'm just being kiasu or stuff along those lines. But it's not. It's more of a fundamental, didn't learn what I really needed to learn in order to progress in my career kinda thing. A feeling of failure cause I wana be really good at my job, no, to really excel at my job kinda thing. I can't help it, I want to be the best. I need to be the best. I know I can be the best.

Lol...... Someone said during my orientation week in first year that life is like waves. Moods are like waves. Well I've noticed the trend. I go up for a period of time, and then down again... Sometimes you feel you're invincible and can do anything, and sometimes you feel like you can't do a thing.

Welllll, so what am I going to do about what is my purpose in life problem?:) I don't know. But getting it all out makes me feel ever so slightly better. More in control.

Its been ages since I've wrote a self-reflective, pondering article like this. I know I have some new readers who might not be used to stuff like this... But this is who I am. And you can relax guys, I'm just working things out, getting my thoughts straight.

It's pretty normal.:) For me at least.

At Last, Some Peace and Quiet

2008-08-30T22:49:00.002+08:00

The kolej seems like its completely empty. After moving the kiosk to the bigger place this morning (alrite!!! we finally did it! yay yay yay), I came back and realised that everyone was gone, roomie Vania's gone off to camp, Shyla's gone back home, along with 90% of the kolej's inhabitants.

It's strange not having to rush about like a headless chicken. Its strange being able to clean my room and organise my stuffs and wash my clothes and go online and blog and go out and get myself dinner and then surprisingly ..... Still find myself free to do whatever I want.

Time to catch up on everything I've been neglecting.

Oh, I'm really enjoying this peaceful feeling:)

A Bunch of Happy Feelings Part 2:D

2008-08-27T19:35:00.003+08:00

Was planning to write this on my birthday but haven't had the time till now.... And this is only because class was cancelled this afternoon, or else I wouldn't be sitting here so relaxed. Well actually, I am supposed to be doing a lot of other stuff and I have a MTM meeting at 9pm but, ahhhh, what the hell.

Had a lot of fun for the past few days. It helps to have a Natyanjali-birthday afterglow, so I positively radiant and energetic.....Been bouncing around like a nutty woman, and thats probably why I feel so exhausted in the evenings. Time to tone done I think.

Got a lot of nice pressies this year:D And a lot of great people who celebrated it with me. Sham said it best when she told me I'm very lucky to have so many friends who are celebrating my birthday with me after passing me the Natyanjali videos, which are omg omg omg very cun.

Celebrations started early on the 24th with a trip to the movies with my good friends and coursemates Vania, Shyla, Michelle and Jia Xin.... Isn't it positively sad how so far, I haven't been to a cinema while in UPM, even after more than a year? Well that was a first, and we watched Dark Knight, which was fantastic.

And when we got back they surprised me with chocolate brownies and a very pretty bracelet:) thanks guys....

On the day itself I had stomach dissection and a physiology discussion for lab report and presentation, of all things.... But it was cool, as class for once started at 10am (birthday luck I suppose) and someone belanjaed dinner at Secret Recipe:D And then I got more pressies, heeheehee.

Yesterday went karaokeing with my Chinese coursemates. We got the biggest room like last time, and had a lot of fun prancing around like nutjobs. And then more cake. Jeez I am eating too much cake. And then Mae called all the way from New Zealand! Sorry Mae my handphone batt went dead:P But looking forward to seeing you year end.

Today I got another surprise pressie! Didn't expect it, and its a very nice Nike T-shirt which I'm going to wear to the MTM meeting in a bit. The problem is I can't tell anyone who gave it to me as he's too shy! Lol.... Anyway if you're reading this, thanks bro;)

Anddddddd, most unique present award of the year goes toooo...... My parents! Guess what they gave me:D

My friend asked me whether I got keys this year... Apparently when you reach 21 you're supposed to get the keys to your house from your parents, some sort of tradition thing. Well my parents got me a towel. Don't get me wrong, no complaints here. I really like my towel. Its big and fluffy and purple and according to the card attached, it has some type of antibacterial properties. And my name is embroidered on it so people can't steal it, because frankly, it would be weird using a towel with Happy 21 Vivian on it if you're not Vivian, even though its big and fluffy and purple and has antibacterial properties. So thanks mum and dad....

hahahahahahahah:D

Just to confirm, its not some hidden message thing asking me to bath more or something right?:P I bath quite often. Everyday in fact. Lol! I had such a laugh when Brian brought it for me the other day.

Thanks to everyone who called or messaged or friendstered....:) If you're reading this, muakx :-*

On a more serious note, I haven't done too well for my Test 1.... Quite bad actually. B's and B minuses. But now all the long commitment projects are done, I think I can finally start to catch up on everything. Not going home this long weekend, will organise my stuffs, do a Study Weekend:)

A Bunch Of Happy Feelings:D

2008-08-27T19:10:00.007+08:00

I had to type this in Word as I couldn't get online, so I'm only posting it today...... The feelings still there though:)

24th August 2008

Words can’t describe this euphoric happy grateful feeling. But I’m going to try to describe it anyway. Or else what would be the point of this post? It’s going to be a long one though. Perhaps I shall have to split it in two.

Kolej 17 swept the awards at A Night of Natyanjali inter-kolej Indian dance competition yesterday. Champions in the Semi-Classic and Contemporary categories, 2nd in the Classic category, Best Costume and Makeup, Best Creativity and the Overall Champions!!! I just don’t know what to say….. It was an utter knockout.

Yesterday was one of those Really Good Days.

The day before, we had had our last practice until around 12pm, and then I had only 4 hours of sleep before dragging myself up to start makeup at 5am the next morning. We were, as Harvin says, going to be Bunchoed completely grey on every exposed surface. Add black nails, dark dark rings around the eyes, fake blood, a scar or three, burns and cuts and gunshot wounds, a psycho hairdo, and a bloody T-shirt plus dirty pants, and…. voila, nine Kolej 17 ghosts come back from the dead.

It was so much fun walking to the bus taking us to the Panggung and giving all the people going to kokurikulum a shock……. And then when we got to the panggung we were the worst looking people there, which made us quite bangga lah:P

Everyone was in pure ghost mode during the performance yesterday. I guess when you’ve had enough time to practice it really shows, because I think all of us were just really in the zone, imagining eating poor old Gary up, making the Ju-On face, moving around zombie-ish as we had just woken up from the graveyard…. The dance steps went brilliantly, and I could hear everyone panting as we went off the stage, which shows how ‘all out’ we were.

After that the performances we went back to kolej, and I had to spend 45 minutes bathing just to get everything off.

In the afternoon I went to help out with the semi-classic team. As I have no idea whatsoever about makeup and its application, I settled for sticking glitter on the boys shirts. Then with much anticipation we left for the panggung.

The girls looked so amazingly pretty I could really fall in love with them, so I went around snapping photos. Got some pretty cool pics:)

Our piece was quite special, as it was an instrumental, and as usual, we had a unique storyline… I think Kolej 17 is making a name for itself with creativity in performances. On the whole I would say its mostly due to our luck with coaches and choreographers. And fun cool brilliant team members.

This time around the team was what you would say as pretty much near perfect as you can get. Everyone from the team manager to the MTM Kebudayaan, costumes and makeup and props teams, dance team and coaches, all did their part, and it just so happened that they have the talent and the experience to do it all the way things should be done. A Dream Team, perhaps.

Its just a great feeling, dancing with talented people who have a passion for it. In my contemporary team there was Sham, Gary, Geo, Mira, Harvey, Yii Pei, Wadi, Anuar, Syamil, and me, while my good friends Suzanne and Dev plus Abang Awang were in semi-classic, together with 5 more hebat people from contemp (which is what we call it), who joined both dances. Do you know how hard it is to practice for two dances at the same time, while tests and all sorts of other stuff are going on too?

We had two creative talented coaches, Raj anna and Hanusha akka (hope I’m spelling this right) and great support from previous team members like Prem and Priya akka. It just so happened that our competition day was also Raj anna’s birthday, and just imagine how happy it is to have the team you choreographed and worked with win so many awards… Now that’s a seriously cool way to spend a birthday.

I still haven’t gotten over how lucky I am to have been part of this team.

To think that a year ago I was watching them on stage doing various performances, wowing the crowds (myself included) already at the time, earning much applause and respect for their dancing. And this year I got to be part of that very group.

I am seriously very grateful.

I’m 21 tommorow! I won’t have such a bombastically satisfying birthday as Raj anna did, but I’m still going to have a really good day:D As if I haven’t had my share of Good Days already, heehee.

Trying To Get Back On Track

2008-07-13T19:50:00.005+08:00

So freaking tired. Have had only a few hours of sleep every night for the past two weeks.... Sleeping at insane hours, like at 3, 4am, and with the most extreme being 7 and 8 am, two days before the annual Malam Tunas Budaya. And we only got third. Slightly disappointed. No more reigning champs this year.

In a low mood at the moment. It is during this period of extreme activity and exhaustion that I have been forced to face all my shortcomings. People have been getting annoyed and irritated at me. Once extremely friendly people, have gotten really angry at me during these past two weeks, or even worse, giving me the cold shoulder, and one best friend saying that I have changed since I came back from the holidays.

I feel slightly lost. And so so tired.

My extremely bad habit of expressing my opinions too forcefully (defending my stand and my view of things) has cost me a lot. I get easily irritated when I'm tired or when there's a urgent or pressing matter at hand, which I shouldn't be doing. It's the fact that I snap at people or roll my eyes and sigh, which makes the other person even more annoyed at me.

I form really strong judgements about people, even though I don't know them well, when I should be trying to understand them. People are really complex beings. And then I wear my heart on my sleeve, way way too much.

Something I wrote two weeks ago just after mtb, but didn't publish. Perhaps cause I didn't find myself getting back on track, and it was just such a depressing post.

Am only finishing it today, the 24th of July.

I was on a downhill slope till just a few days ago, when I had a good long chat with a friend of mine, which helped me tremendously. Now I'm on the up again...:) Learning a lot, and hopefully becoming tougher in the process.

Orientation week was seriously very cool. One very memorable week with not enough sleep and not enough time to eat, lots of running around and bonding and Senam Seni Malaysia. Lost weight so I have an eviable figure right now.... Wonder how long it will last:P

So I finally got over a rough patch with endless meeting after meeting, mtb practice and coursenight rehearsal and then more meetings, night after night, whereby I slept in almost every class everyday and have so far missed 3 weeks of lectures.

It goes something like 'mtb, coursenight, orientation, mtm meeting, sekretariat meeting, guardian angel game, ceriathon, dogathon'. Have been totally immersed in kolej and faculty stuff for more than a month now, no going out, no studying, basically nothing else. Very unhealthy. And first test is next week......

I don't want to be one of those people who take on so much that they neglect a part of their responsibilities, which they asked for in the first place. Responsibilities to others, and responsibilities to ones own self. And keeping my emotions in check, another thing I have to work on.

But I think I'm getting back on track. Thank god for darling people who look out for you when you need it.

Time For A New Year

2008-06-22T01:00:00.003+08:00

Whew has been a long time since I entered Universiti Putra Malaysia. Or has it? It's been only a year but it seems like its been ten, and so much has happened I look back and I'm quite amazed.

Well, it's off to uni for me tommorrow, in preparation for Minggu Perkasa Putra, or in other words, freshie orientation week.... Looking forward to seeing my juniors! Looking forward to seeing all my old friends too, though it's only been two months.

Been busy at kolej with student council stuff for the past week, and boy do I have a lot in store for me. Most probably will be in charge of setting up a student kiosk in Kolej 17, selling all kinds of necessities, which means I have to look for suppliers and keep accounts and look for manpower and money to buy goods and god knows what else... I find it quite hilarious really, them picking a person completely ignorant of businesslike matters to be treasurer and also to co-head the secretariat keusahawanan.

The Kem Keusahawanan for us MTM was cool, got to bond with my new colleagues, and man are they a great lot. You can see why each of them was picked to be in the MTM, and it's really an honour to be a part of this group. We've got quite a friendly atmosphere going now, so let's just hope it lasts us for the next year shall we?

In all honesty, I have never in my life even considered running my own business, being my own boss, let alone setting up an entire business from scratch. Suddenly finding myself in charge of the Entrepreneurship Secretariat and handling money matters was a slight shock, but after camp, and after thinking about possibilities I've never thought about, I'm beginning to find it ...... Fun. Surprising huh?:)

I'm determined to do this right, and also to fulfill my other responsiblities. Two other more major things to finish this semester, assistant directorship of Dogathon and another bulletin for Veternak..... I think I'm supposed to dance for a Night of Natyanjali and I really want to find some place to take up dancing lessons again... Want to go do some horse riding at the UPM equestrian center now I have my car.... A whole freakin lot of MTM and faculty activities I'm supposed to attend and be a part of, in support of my organising comrades..... Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be studying too!

Breathe viv breathe.....

Playing Housewife For A Week

2008-05-30T23:33:00.004+08:00

Well my parents went off to Korea for a week and left me in charge, with of course, bro and sis to accompany me. It's been quiet but kinda fun, though I'm slightly tired of cooking at the moment, heheh...

Driving to the clinic is really tiring! Been practicalling there for the past two weeks. One hour to get there and an hour an a half to get back cause of the traffic. The fact that I stuck to it makes me quite proud of myself. How people do it every day I can't imagine.

Actually only the first week was compulsory, but I learnt so much that I decided to continue this week, mornings only though. Have to get back home to cook dinner and do laundry don't I?

Cooked dinner all this week:) First time I've ever done that actually. And though the food was, er, let's just say you can tell it's cooked by a beginner ..... it was quite edible. Thank you bro and sis for being my lab rats and not complaining (much) this week.

I started off small, really really really easy.

The next day, very slightly more difficult.

Wednesday was the easiest really. Looked pretty good too:)

Thursday, huh. The veggies were too salty, forgot to put salt into my egg and mushroom and potato mixture, and the roast chicken was ok though we weren't really used to the strong rosemary smell. The leftover roast chicken came in handy for lunch today though, as we had roast chicken sandwiches:) Oh, and the curry is courtesy of darling Ee Ee.

Last day, today, and most ambitious day. Chicken pie and mashed potato! Chicken pie was just so so, nothing to rave about, and mashed potato was actually made by my bro, directed by me of course. Still, spent two whole hours before finally putting the pie into the oven. Whew!

And thus ends my 5 day venture into the joys of being a housewife cum working woman. Haha. And to think, I only went in to the clinic for half days, and still the house is in quite a mess (the chicken pie today alone generated quite an amount of chaos:).

I shall never look at married women with families the same way again. Now to enjoy my freedom!;D

Parents coming back tommorow. So have one whole day to get the house straight and restock the fridge I raided. Woohoo, there's gonna be homecooked food not cooked by me next week!

Moving

2008-05-14T23:20:00.003+08:00

Well, after more than 10 years of living in this rented semi-d, we are finally moving to our own place. It sure took us a long time to get here.

Not to say that I won't miss this old house, even though my sister and I have kinda outgrown our room and there was barely place to move about, with all the stuff we have. It's strange, moving out of a room you've been sleeping in for 10 years, never to sleep there again.

I wonder if I'll be able to sleep in the new house. It's nice and big and roomy, with lots of windows and lots of space, at least, much more than we're accustomed to. Well, Sunday's the big day!

The problem is, I won't get to stay in it very much will I? This first year alone, I've been gone at least 9 to 10 months of the year. And that only increases as I progress towards becoming a vet... A busy busy fac and lots and lots of practicals.

Feels like I have to go back very soon, though it's still about a month away... Not really looking forward to it somehow. I haven't had enough time at home yet! And now I sound like some whiny homesick kid.

I'm happy there. This is what I've chosen to do and I'm quite certain I'm on the right road. It's just I don't know how I got sucked into so much non vet related stuff. In truth, I'm slightly dreading my second year.... There's going to be a lot of events and organising and meetings and etc etc etc, in the faculty and out of it, and with it, the accompanying stress and heartache.

I just wanna do a good job. I knew when I decided that being on the student council of Kolej 17 is a whole lot of hard work. Starting with Minggu Perkasa Putra, the university orientation week for freshies... And I hope our council does a good job. In the faculty, I'll be in 2nd year, which is the year most of us are on the faculty club boards and we have to organise stuff like orientation and sports day and ceriathon and vet camp and Dogathon... I want my DVM to do a good job.

Ah.... Well I'm just looking forward to being in 3rd year, when I can just focus on being a really good veterinarian. Guess I'll just have to suck it up and battle my way through 2nd year... I wonder what I'll be like, coming out on the other side?

Performances!

2008-03-23T02:44:00.005+08:00

What makes a good on-stage performance? Training, training, training, and a great smile:)

Rushed over to the Marriott Hotel right after my (3 hours! jeez this is like STPM) anatomy test, for the annual Kolej dinner for the final year students. Everyone was all dressed up and pretty while I, according to someone, looked like I just got out of the swimming pool.

Waited around for my Indian shakalaka dance dress to arrive, and Dr. Awang did my make-up;P 3 layers of foundation! Looked like some porcelain doll... Or maybe someone right out of a chinese opera show. It was such a rush, in the end, we got up to the ballroom just in time to watch the first duet by idols Geo and Ashraf.

Bah, forgot my Menjelma steps. Felt quite down afterwards, especially after so much training.... I've done Menjelma at least 50 to 60 times, but never on stage.... What the hell.. I quite regret not going through the dances at least twice before the show. The others had all done the rehearsals in the afternoon, and on the stage itself too. Quite dumb of me. Well, something to remember for future performances I guess:)

But later when I asked my fellow performers for the night, who had gone in before us and were already eating dinner at a table in the ballroom, they said they didn't notice anything.... I'm not sure but I think they were just trying to make me feel better. Super sweet of them if it was, and all the better if they didn't, hehehe.

It was an honour to finally be able to dance with Sharm and Geo and gang:) Always wanted to perform with them, but never had the opportunity... Still got a lot to practice though, haven't really gotten that 'Indian vibe' down pat yet. And got to know the senior who's not really a senior better, the crazy Suzanne:) We haven't really figured out if she's a bad influence on me or vice versa.

Today we had another performance, which was actually a test for my Vokal Asas cocurriculum, and we each had to do an individual solo. I sang LOVE by Michael Buble, and was I'm sorry to say I wasn't really prepared... Got back from morning cocurriculum at 2.20pm (stupid stupid stupid buses... spent 2 hours just relaxing at the old flat bus stop), without practising or anything and just zooming around my house looking for things to wear from my housemates, falling over kittens, trying out the newly burned cd (many thanks to my dear roommate) and and then rushed off again at 3pm.

So what if my pitching was slightly out?:) Hahahaha... Had a pretty good time, and the judges seemed to like my performance, comments were 'great choice of song, but you need to be more 'over' and menggoda. Lol.

It seems like having a great smile can cover up a lot. It's lucky I'm blessed with a pretty smile then:D I really need to remember to rehearse the performance more, especially on the day itself (heh,have I not learned anything since the Winds of Change concert fiasco?!). Looking forward to doing better next time!

Off to the Lanchang Elephant Conservation Center in Pahang tomorrow. No rest for the weary it seems.

One More Month To The End of First Year

2008-03-16T20:14:00.002+08:00

Phew its been a long time since I had a free Sunday..... And the conclusion is, free Sundays aren't really good for me, especially if there's an exam the next day.

Spent most of the day in a dream-like state, trying to study for the IT test tomorrow. Needless to say I wasted a lot of time doing nothing.

Past few Sundays have been filled with a jungle fowl farm trip, Ceriathon, Hari Sukan, and a trip to the Kuala Selangor Nature Park and the famous fireflies of Kuala Selangor. Should have gone for the Raptor Watch today.... Well, going to the Lanchang Elephant Conservation center in Pahang next Sunday though. We also had Majlis Silaturahim, where we managed to get second place behind DVM 5 with our sketch cum musical called, Cinta Terhalang, a story about a forbidden love between a cat and a dog, with some Prokasih people jumping in at the end.

Helped out a bit with the Prokasih catch and release neutering program... It was fun, taking care of all the cats the seniors caught from the colleges in the Elephant House (I wonder why they call it that), taking their TPR and stuff. And helped to catch some cats in Kolej 12 on Friday too.

Been dancing quite a bit this past week, in preparation for the college dinner. Menjelma is getting kinda boring cause we've done it so many times. But then I have another Indian dance which is challenging and really fun:) Cant get the shakalaka baby song out of my head now though....

Visited the Bukit Jalil National Squash Center yesterday. Had a ball admiring all the buff men and super fit girls playing there, hehehehe.

This post is rather boring. Probably its cause I've had such a boring day. Sigh.... There isn't much excitement going on in my life nowadays, cept for the fact that the opposition now has control of my state, haha.

Yay, one more month till I get to go home... Can't wait to go home and help move house and see my new niece:) I wonder if I'll be in time to watch any American Idol....

Busy Times Again

2008-02-17T20:05:00.002+08:00

Ah well, the mid sem madness is here again.... Got picked as Veternak bulletin editor and assistant director for this year's Dogathon, so plenty of stuff to do in those respects. Then no idea how I got pulled into being in the organising committee for so many 2nd year events.... I think the reasoning was, we coursemates have to support each other, heheh:)

Been practising cheerleading ( or rather, our version of cheerleading :P) for the Vet Sports Day competition this Sunday... So far DVM 1's been doing pretty well:) 1st in basketball and 2nd in both bola jaring and futsal, heehee..

Supposed to perform at the PWTC this Friday for my Vokal Asas class, but don't know if that will happen or not at the moment... Sounds pretty cool though, to perform at the PWTC, albeit only a small part of a 75 person choir. And also supposed to perform at the some dinner for the final year students of Kolej 17, dancing this time, so more training to look forward to.

I went to donate blood for the 3rd time yesterday. It's always pretty cool, seeing your bag of blood being stored away. The blood donation was part of the Karnival Ideal Kolej 17, and since squash was cancelled yesterday went over with May Lyn to support them ( in all honesty it was mainly to get college merit, heheh). But not bad la, got to do some bit for charity... I'm sure the orphans for which this event was organised had a great time with their abang and kakak angkat at the karnival:) Got to watch a local band, Infinitez, live too. They're pretty good:)

Sprained my ankle playing futsal before Chinese New Year. It got horribly swollen, but now it seems to be much better. Lots of running around to do for the next few weeks:)

2008 Vet Camp

2008-01-22T10:49:00.000+08:00

About a week ago, most of my coursemates and I were packed off into the jungle for a 3 day 2 night Vet Camp at Sungkai, Perak. It was the sky was pouring happily when we reached the place, and as the one way road was super narrow and the leaves and branches of the trees plastered themselves against the windows of the bus, we felt like we were entering Jurassic Park. Heh, goes to show how much of an impact a movie can have on people.

Luckily it stopped raining not long after we got off, though we had to set up our tents and stuff in the dark. You feel like you're living in perpetual darkness over there, especially if you're dumb enough to have not brought a torchlight, like me.

After the obligatory group bonding session (I was in group Siamang), where we made up our 'see what? siamang' cheer, we got to go out on a night walk using only a string as a guide. The stars were magnificent, and there was no moon, and we had a good time getting scared as various fascilitators made weird noises and tried to catch our legs as we went by. I oddly found them quite comforting as it reminded me that I wasn't alone in the forest.

The next day we had various activities, like jungle trekking, making a boat out of nothing and making sure it could carry a frog for a ways down the river (which our group succeeded at, though the boat was the smallest, hurrah:P) , abseiling, which I didn't get to do cause it started to pour when I was on top of the hill and we got stranded there, and in the end we let down a rope and came down through the glorious mud plus newly formed rivulet of water, which I guess you could say was a more exciting form of abseiling, and other little games. Needless to say I was constantly wet but quite a happy wet little camper.

At night we had performances by all the groups, and my group got the song Pudar by Rossa, so Juli, Diana and Farhah were did the singing trio thing while Fida, Wei Cheit and I did the acting in a music video thingy. It was quite a hit, especially when we had to do the whole thing a second time but as chickens. Later that night we had a war game in the forest, during which I spent most of the time hiding from enemy teams and the fasciliators immortal lanun team, and searching for treasure on the floor in the pitch blackness.

The next day we did a river crossing, and got all wet again obviously, and then we got to play The Amazing Vet Race, where Siamang won by a lucky stroke, as we went through all the stations pretty fast and didn't get duped at the end by devious fascilitators. The most memorable part was when they forced us to eat a piece of belacan and cili padi wrapped in bread plus thick, mudlike coffee, and just the memory of that can still put us all off food.

Siamang got first overall:) Great team, the Siamangs. Here's to many happy memories:)

The camp was a success, you could tell by the way that everyone was still excitedly talking about it days after we got back. Man, all of us are still doing the various group cheers whenever we get bored waiting for the K17 bus.

Bom Berudu!

Second Semester Already

2008-01-06T12:30:00.001+08:00

Whew it's been a really long time since I've blogged. It's already almost the 3rd week of the 'new' semester:)

Hols was super fun, went to do practicals at the Taiping Zoo and SPCA Penang, came back to KL for dance practice and performed at Putrajaya, went to Club Med Phuket with family and aunt and cousin, went back home to lepak for a bit and see all my long lost relatives... I got nice and tanned and slightly thinner, but sadly, UPM's reversing all that now I'm back here and sedentaryness overpowers me constantly and I am forced to eat all the nutrient free oily food again.

It's nice to be back though.

I've been itching to get my hands on Anatomy and Physiology and other vet related stuff after a semester of Islamic Civilisations and Ethnic Relations and Management.

So far we've just sat around in labs and lectures but it's been cool. Went to the ultracool modern scientificky Bioscience Institute, where you have to key in passwords to get the door to open, to see some electron microscopes on Friday. Got really wet waiting for the bus in the pouring rain since it's out in the middle of nowhere, but ahh, what the hell. First year students like us who wait for hours for public transport and go all around campus on foot have to stand resilient against the forces of nature, be it cold wet rain or super freaking scorching sun.

Yayyy, they finally put up our poster!:D Go Duck and Geese Poster Team!:P

Speaking of public transport. Almost lost my phone again on the KTM on New Year's Eve. Felt someone trying to push my phone out of my pocket. Good thing I had my hand firmly stuffed on top of it. My friend May Lyn right next to me felt it too. During the hot, sweaty, saunalike train ride, someone suddenly screamed further down the train. Other friends later told me that someones wallet got stolen. Ah, the perils of public transport....

Waiting for public transport.....

Everywhere was packed on New Year's Eve. Bukit Bintang was milling with people, some listening to the concert, some trying to man make snow... We paid a visit to the Pavilion. I felt strangely light as I walked into the place, it was so pretty. Later in the night I found my Form 6 friends and caught up with them. And then we all spent the night at McDonalds in Bukit Bintang and got back to kolej at 9am on New Year's Day. Phew. Don't think I will be doing that again.

Christmas Eve was nice. Went over to Shyla's place and got acquainted with her family and some of her childhood friends. Had a ball listening to their funny stories and eating thosai and chocolate chip cookies and coconut candy and dressing up and all. It was fun listening to all the sarcasm being thrown around by the siblings and cajoling Shyla's brother to hum a rock song.

But enough of going backwards.

Took two new cocurriculums this sem, finishing it off so I can free up future Saturdays. Squash is really absorbing, learnt the correct way of holding a racket and how to do a straight drive yesterday. Nice facilitators too. Vokal Asas is pretty funny, but its nice and relaxing and we get to do singing, so I'm happy.

Lots of activities coming up. The Vet Faculty Sports Day is looming and everyone's getting pretty excited, and they're gonna stick us in some woods next weekend for the annual Vet Camp......

Oh, congratulations to my sis Jillian, who predicably scored straight A's for the PMR. I guess the trend continues then. Life is so predictable, living in a high achieving family.

SPCA Penang

2007-12-03T11:11:00.000+08:00

Was at SPCA Penang last week for our second practical. Pretty good experience, learnt a lot about shelter management and why euthanising strays, though distasteful to many, is still very necessary. Picked up lots of faeces and shoved pills down quite a few throats... Got a few bites and scratches here and there as a nice memento too:)

Every year, thousands of dogs and cats are put down at the Penang SPCA alone. There's just simply not enough place and resources to sustain all of them. It's especially saddening to see the puppies put to sleep. And only over a hundred are successfully adopted. There's still a long long way to go before we create a stray free Penang.....

While we were there though, 8 dogs and 1 cat got adopted:D I think we have good aura.

The First Practical

2007-11-26T00:19:00.000+08:00

Boy was it fun. So much fun we were all regretting the fact that we had to leave so soon... We're definitely planning to go back again though.

Our 6 day practical at the Taiping Zoo started on Monday with the daily morning routine of feeding and cleaning up after the animals in the Zoo Clinic (they'll be upgrading to a bigger hospital soon) and the daily rounds of animals about the zoo. When we were there, there was a baby leopard cat and baby otter, a hornbill, an eagle, an owl, two otters, a adult leopard cat and a white furry domestic cat we liked to call Psycho in the clinic, and we played with them every single day till we got quite attached and were so sorry to leave them at the end of the week.

There was something new to do every day, there wasn't a chance of getting bored. Under the guidance of Mr. Lim, who's been at the Taiping Zoo for 11 years, and two 4th year seniors, Ah Jian and Gerry, we learnt tons of stuff about handling and restraining animals, feeding, treatment, postmortem techniques, drugs, and plenty of new terms. On top of that, I was schooled in the art of chooosing and deboning fresh fish.

The first day we played around with the chimps and fed them tiny bottles of deworming medicine through their cages, and the cheeky things managed to pick three bottles right out of our unsuspecting hands and we had to get the keeper to get them back. I was pleasantly surprised though, when verbally trying to coax one particular chimp to give the bottle back to me, he suddenly rolled over, stuck the bottle on his thumb, ambled over and proffered me the bottle through the bars of his own free will. I also did my very first subcutaneous injection that day, on, of all things, a python.

On the 2nd day, we treated a tapir, a kangaroo and a civet. I restrained the serus crane and carried it out of its enclosure so that its wounded feet could be cleaned. And in the afternoon we made darts and had some blow pipe practice on a small box with Gerry's profile drawn on it.

On the 3rd day, we went further out into the streets of Taiping to dart stray dogs. It was quite an experience. In the afternoon we went to see a 20 foot reticulated python, which wasn't doing very well and was quite emaciated and moulting badly. In the end, all of us helped take it out of its enclosure to be treated and brought to the quarantine area. After that Mr. Lim let us take out another smaller snake and learn how to handle it properly.

The next day, the reticulated python died. So the first postmortem for us DVM 1 students was on a reticulated python, and it was quite a journey from the head to the tail. My legs were pretty cramped up by the time we got there.

The 5th day, we PMed a mouse deer with a punctured thoracic cavity and a monkey who probably had been hit by a car and had a lot of fractured limbs, poor thing. As it was our last night in Taiping, we went out for dinner with the seniors and belanjaed them for being so patient with us all week (hey we knew nothing when we started the week), and then had a hilarious game of bowling, where I very surprisingly scored two strikes.

The 6th day we vaccinated the panthers and tigers for feline leukemia, and I got to dart a tiger. We spent the last afternoon feeding elephants and taking the owl and the eagle and the orangutan Wasabi out to lepak. The eagle very obligingly leapt from the 'Holy Wood' as Mr. Lim likes to call the stick he uses to carry the birds about, to my shoulder and then to my head, to the great delight of my mates and the general public. My scalp received quite a massage and I would greatly recommend eagle on the head treatment for anyone with dandruff problems.

Oh what a great experience it was. We were very lucky to have two tai ko with us who explained many things very patiently and took over the stuff we couldn't handle. Mr. Lim was awesome, and let us do a lot of hands on work under his supervision. And we are greatly indebted to Michelle's family, who had to put up with 6 boisterious noisy strangers for one whole week. I can't believe we took 4 gigabytes worth of photos and video:P

So I finished my first semester in university. So far, life's pretty good:) One sem down and nine more to go.....

Blast Off!

2007-10-11T23:28:00.000+08:00

Our Angkasawan is really cute. He's so good looking he looks like a movie star!

I remember reading about them a year or two ago, when they were still shortlisting candidates for training in Russia. And I remember thinking, I hope the dashing doctor from HUKM with the boyish smile gets to be our first man in space.

So day before yesterday, the 10th of October 2007, Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar went off on his little journey into space, and with all of us down here in Malaysia watching and cheering. We're so proud.

But I wonder how many people really do love this country?

Over the years I've heard multitudes of people wishing they were abroad, wanting to 'move as soon as they got the chance' and various 'the grass is greener on the other side of the fence' type of statements. The ultimate dream is to study abroad and then hopefully find a job there and then settle down there for good.

I don't really know how I feel about this subject.

After 5 years as a DVM student, where will I be working? Intriguing question that.

There is absolutely a pull in all things foreign and exotic, a feeling of adventure and opportunity and a 'anything is possible' atmosphere.

Yet Malaysia has slowly but surely wormed its way into my heart over the past 12 years.

I still have a vivid recollection of the young girl who came back from the US, who spoke with a strong American accent and said things like 'duh', and knew only all things American and who could sing the National Anthem and recite the American Constitution but didn't know a thing about Negaraku and Rukun Negara. A girl who kicked up the most enormous fuss whenever we ate a hawker stall because the weather was 'too hot'. I remember only eating wantan mee for a very long time because I was too picky (which in retrospect, was very dumb of me).

Actually I've forgotten how to sing America's National Anthem a long time ago. I've lost the duh's and added a whole lot of lah's and meh's. Recently I've been monitoring the state of my tummy, which i'm afraid, is getting a bit unsightly. Malaysian food just rocks!

Which is not to say that American culture didn't leave a lasting impression on me. It did, a whole lot. But after 12 long years I'm proud to say that I really do love Malaysia with all its special little quirks, and though it sounds really corny...... I am proud to be a Malaysian.

Hmmm, I wonder how many Angkasawans it will take before our country becomes a place where everybody hopes to go to someday, instead of fly away from. Probably a lot.

I wonder how our handsome doc is doing up there....

I Wonder How Many Toes I've Stepped On These Past Few Weeks

2007-09-26T23:36:00.001+08:00

I just had to escape here for a bit, trying to keep myself sane....

What a typical day is like nowadays:
9am to 12pm : Masyarakat presentation discussion
12pm to 1pm : Class
1pm to 2pm : Management presentation preparation
2pm to 4pm : Class- Management presentation
4pm to 6pm : Profesyen Vet report discussion/go water pasture if it didn't rain
Night : Hubungan Etnik presentation discussion/finish Biochem lab report

Actually thats my schedule for tommorow. On top of that I still have to do Masyarakat assignment and Animal Agriculture assignment which are due next week. Thank god we finished our Animal Agriculture pasture samples and TITAS presentation and also essay and all the 2nd tests last week.

Got pulled into going to the Ostrich Farm in Port Dickson last Saturday. Quite fun riding an ostrich though. Then spent last night celebrating the Midautumn Festival, with lanterns and mooncakes and all. And for some insane reason the Kolej decided everybody who was involved in Malam Tunas Budaya has to go to a 3 day Kem Pemantapan Kolej this Friday and they only put up the notice today.

Its been life's been full and tiring, and sometimes tempers have been short. Haven't lost mine yet, but have gotten annoyed sometimes and I hope I haven't offended anybody too badly so far:P When you have 7 different groups (one group for each subject I'm taking), and your group members vary, and then sometimes your fellow group members overlap, and then you have to keep track of the progress of all your projects.......

I just don't know how to describe it adequately. I've never juggled so many things at one time before. Its good training I suppose.

Alright. Back to work.

Happy Merdeka!

2007-08-31T11:32:00.000+08:00

Our country is 50 years old today! Maybe years from now, I shall remember myself at this very moment, a bright young 20 year old vet student, sitting in McDonalds writing in my blog while waiting for my bus home to Penang. It's been exactly two months since I've been home!

Been getting only 4 to 5 hours of sleep daily for the past week.... So many things to do, so little time. BBQs, lab report, ladang visit, convocation choir, scampering around campus to multiple group discussion meetings for TITAS essay and Hubungan Etnik project and Masyarakat dan Perubahan essay and Pengenalan kepada Profesyen Veterinar poster and Management presentation and the Animal Agriculture professor just dumped another two assignments onto us...... Tests starting again right after the hols too!

I have to remind myself to breathe sometimes. If the busyness level of first years are like this, I can't imagine what final year will be like.

Looking forward to mucking around at home and eating out with my family (They owe me, I can't believe they went out on the 25th of August and smsed me to tell me that they were celebrating my birthday!:P) and catching up with my old friends and reading my James Herriot.... And studying Biochem and Profesyen Veterinar and doing assignments. Looking forward to that too!:)

I wonder where I'll be when Malaysia turns 100. That will be one week after my 70th birthday:) Vivian (hopefully Dr. Vivian by then), 70 years old.

Ok, coming back to reality now. Off to catch the bus!

Happy 50th Merdeka!

How Lucky I Am

2007-08-25T01:35:00.000+08:00

It frequently amazes me how I get so much more than I deserve. What have I done to deserve such kindness and such love from the people around me?

Lately I've been pretty distracted. In other words, I've been pretty self absorbed. I don't think I've been focussing enough on the people around me. And the worse thing is, I've done it before! I quote myself in an old blog post- 'I can be one self absorbed person. Don't people see that? Selfish and self centered, thinking about myself and my own comfort and my own convenience.'

Today is my 20th birthday. It's a pretty big leap, and it's weird, I actually do feel kinda different.

I was planning to sleep through The Actual Moment though, and I had been asleep for half an hour when my phone started ringing and it was my old class monitor Zu Huang, calling to wish me happy birthday. And halfway through that my dear housemates suddenly burst into the room singing and gave me some Mamee, a box of Dutch Lady milk, and Mee Goreng. Very inventive people, my housemates. I spent the next hour replying to the various people who sent me birthday wishes, getting funny phonecalls from my coursemates and my Ee Ee and my little cousin Raven, who was so pleased after wishing me Happy Birthday I could hear him giggling loudly in the background.

So now I'm wide awake. It's been a long time since I updated this blog, and now seems like a poignant moment.

I was pretty touched the other day when my coursemates threw me and Che Giap and Luke a little birthday party. It was supposed to be a surprise, but some of my coursemates aren't very good at acting:P I was moved though; no ones ever planned a surprise birthday party for me before! Got some nice chocolates from the seniors and Zi Herk, Boon Keat and Hooi Cheng gave me a hippy little pink flower pin and a dog clip to put in my hair. The downside was I was obliged to wear the pink flower pin with my coveralls and rubber boots to the ladang the next day.

Can you feel the love people?:)

I know don't appreciate my friends enough. New resolution for my twenties (gosh that sounds old), take more care of my friends and the people around me.

It's been a busy past couple of weeks.

First there was the Dogathon weekend, which included pre-preparation day, preparation day, and the day itself which came complete with a Pengurusan dan Organisasi test in the afternoon. And I auditioned for 17 Idol that weekend too:D That was pretty fun and liberating, though I got quite sick of the audition song when some of my coursemates asked me to teach it to them and I had to sing it over and over again as we carried stuff to and fro over the fields of Bukit Ekspo, where the Dogathon was held.

Didn't get many pics though. Here's me and Zi Herk, advertising for Pedigree.

Me and a Dalmatian puppy, the only dog I got a pic with that day.

Then after that was the Gua Tempurung /K17 Idol weekend. Gua Tempurung was awe inspiring. It's the biggest cave on the peninsula, and it's beautiful in there. Like something straight out of The Lord of The Rings. On the left is us, all clean and dry:)

Then we got really really wet and we had a lot of fun playing communists in the freezing cold water. I didn't realise it would take us 3 hours just to get to Gua Tempurung though, so I only got back to K17 at 6.30pm and had to rush to be in time for dance rehearsal for 17 Idol.

17 Idol was pretty good. Students in Kolej 17 aren't just bookish nerds, they have quite a lot of artistic cells too! So far we've won at MTB, Festari, Natyanjali..... What inter kolej competition are we going to get prizes for next?:p

Finally going home next week. It'll be good to go home after 2 months away.

Today Was A Good Day

2007-08-06T18:39:00.000+08:00

One thing I've found since I've been here, is that there are highs and there are lows. Today was a high day:D

I first had a great lab/lecture session with Dr. Goh Yong Meng, one of my favourite lecturers, who also happens to be my Penasihat Akademik, and also my role model. Too bad chromatography isn't going to be included in the next test. I'd probably ace it. When Dr. Goh teaches, you can just see the passion he has for his subject.

Here's some of us in the lab:D

Then, in the afternoon we had our equine and ruminant rota. It was so much fun! My group went for equine first, where we learnt various ways of handling horses and taking basic parameters, and all sorts of horse related terms and facts, and we got to practice getting the horse to lift her hoof up for inspection and pulling her tongue out so we could see her teeth....

I found it really funny when the vet said the horse's name was Paul Moss... But it was actually Pramos:P And there I was thinking that the people at the faculty had some vendetta against Paul Moss.

After that we scooted next door to see the ruminants. There Mr. Vellu told us all about ruminants and how to handle them. He's been working there for 30 years and knows practically everything about them.

Me and Wawa took a pic with the cow:P Notice how she and the cow are about the same height, hehehe.

Parading about in our new coveralls..

As the theme for today seems to be playing dress up, here's a pic of us all dressed up:P

But anyway, I am in a very cheerful mood today:D And to think just yesterday I was really sad I couldn't join Festari cause they put it on the same day as the Dogathon. Just goes to show that we always have to remember bad things don't last forever:)

After A Month As A Vet Student

2007-08-04T00:23:00.000+08:00

It's been a month since I first came here, but somehow it seems like so much longer.

But then at the same time, it's starting to hit me how fast my 5 years here will pass, just like all the seniors say.

Sounds a tad contradictory, I know.

The other day my friends and I were discussing how hard it is to imagine ourselves as students in DVM 5, cause we saw a slideshow about our present seniors there. All the things they have done together, all the places they've been.... It's hard to imagine we'll be doing all those things too!

Tests are coming up and I still haven't removed all the mould thats been growing in my brain for the past 7 months.... I keep daydreaming when I should be focussing... Don't know how my test results are going to be like:P

On a lighter note, on Monday I get to wear my nice new coveralls for my first equine and ruminant rota, right behind the faculty at the Large Animal Ward. (call me silly but I really like this sentence... I finally get to use all those cool vet terms:P) I seriously haven't had any contact with animals since I got here, since I missed faculty orientation.

Dogathon's next Sunday!! That's something I look very forward to:D Will hopefully get some nice pics to post up here.

I’ve decided not to change the name of my blog….. At first I thought the name was really stupid, but I really couldn’t think of anything else! Still, I kept racking my mind, but now my sis says she likes it and the name sounds like something from an Enid Blyton story. Ah, well, I can’t think of anything else anyway.

Meeting People

2007-07-24T11:47:00.000+08:00

It's kinda strange meeting a person you've only seen before in photographs and talked to over the phone. I've met a few of these people in the vet faculty over these past few weeks, and it's such a surreal feeling.... A bit like meeting a famous person you've read about through the media. It is fun though, seeing these people in real life for the first time:D
I got my old handphone back yesterday. So people, you can can contact me again!:P I'm still using my old number, though I've lost all the contacts and won't know who you are. Thanks Shen Nee for bringing it to me all the way from Penang:) It is hard to meet old friends even though we're studying in the same university. If we didn't plan it beforehand we could go a whole semester without seeing each other.
Was so delighted to receive my dad's gift from Italy at the same time. I love the bag very much, and Pinocchio now has a place of honour in a corner of my table:D Love ya dad!
For some reason I can't read any blogs here. All blogs on blogspot especially. I can post but I can't read my posts, isn't that just weird? I'm not sure but I think they are blocking access to blogs.... So if you guys leave any comments I won't be able to read them either. Geramnya.....

I'm Out of Steam

2007-07-21T18:43:00.000+08:00

Very tired recently. Sleeping through all my classes..... Still lots of activities and things to do. I can't imagine what a free night is like! Been wearing a tired look every single day and I keep getting comments about my listless eyes....
And I'm actually thinking of joining Festari (Festival Seni Tari) which is going to be held from the 9th to 11th of August! Oh by the way, the big annual vet event, the Dogathon is going to be held on the 12th of August, for which we are 'compulsory volunteers', as our class rep so nicely put it:P Not that I'm complaining, I love dogs. That week happens to be exam week too. I wonder if I'm going to have a fatigue breakdown.
Been here for 3 weeks already and it seems like eternity. Haven't had the chance to explore outside UPM even. Hoping to go out to either the Mines or Midvalley tommorow with my housemates:D
And now I'm going out to dinner with my room mate and some seniors. Life is full and exciting and also very tiring.

We Won MTB!

2007-07-16T10:24:00.000+08:00

But I lost my phone.

It happened just as we were announced as winners of Majlis Tunas Budaya 2007, when we all leapt up and started yelling with excitement. In all the havoc my phone must have slipped out of my pocket, and picked up by someone who immediately turned it off....

I have only my own negligence and stupidity to blame. I'm just really sorry I have to inconvenience so many people, like my room mate, and most of all my poor mum, who has to go get me a new sim card and pass my old phone to someone so they can bring it over to me. As punishment to myself I will use my old phone which I brought with me to National Service and is now worth about RM100 for a really long time.

But joining MTB was so worth every moment. I missed out on some college activities and faculty orientation, but it was worth it. Seeing all the Kolej 17 supporters cheering us on in the crowd was so inspiring! While we were backstage at the Panggung Percubaan, there was a big screen showing everything that was happening in the front, and there was one shot of Pop the Ketua Cheer leading K17 with the Paddle Pop cheer.... And when we were on stage, the supporters from K17 and Kolej Pendeta Zaabar cheered thoroughout the performance. When the curtain came up they cheered. When we raised our hands they cheered. When the syaitan and pemimpin came out they cheered again. Wen we said hey they cheered. And the more they cheered the more motivated we became! But there were still so many people backstage that the audience didn't see...

This is one time I've felt very strongly the importance of every single member in a large team. From the costume designers and the people who put the costumes together, the make up team, the props and technical teams, and Abang Hazwan and Abang Didi who organised us all and our transportation and food and rehearsals and places to stay for the people from KPZ, and to the most important Dr Awang and our seniors who were the ones responsible for the creative ideas and sending a clear message and great storyline and the choreographing of all the steps..... I was just a small part, a mere dancer who was present at rehearsals and did what she was told to do.

Much of the credit has to go to Dr. Awang and our seniors, without whom we would have been nothing I'm afraid. The dancers do get some credit la, for having the dedication to be present at all the practices every single day for ten days. But without Dr. Awang and our senior's absolutely 'gempak' , as they call it, ideas, and their perfectly choreographed steps, we could never have won MTB. I'm just feeling very grateful to have been chosen to be included in this team.

My nights are now free, which is a really weird feeling. Now I finally have the time to get my room and my wonderfully cluttered desk back in order..... I was so blur last week I couldn't think straight. I'm gonna miss using that excuse. Last week I just had the same reply whenever I made a mistake or fell asleep at lectures or said something dumb, which was, 'sorryla, very blur, MTB you know.' hehehe....

Now to focus on my academic side for a while. Gotta get my stuff organised properly so I won't be so kelam kabut anymore!

Greetings From UPM!

2007-07-12T15:55:00.001+08:00

Finally got the chance to connect to the Internet. I'm now in the Makmal Komputer at the Vet Faculty. We don't have a router yet, or else I could have signed in from my room, which by the way, is awesome, very roomy, with lots of nice places to put my stuff.

It seems like I've been here for a really long time already, although it's only been a week and a half. Perhaps it's because every day since the 1st of July has been completely packed with activities, and the amount of things I have accomplished in this space of time would normally be enough to fill 3 or 4 weeks.:D I have been getting an average of 4 hours a sleep a day, so I have been in a state of blurness since last Wednesday, ever since I auditioned for Malam Tunas Budaya, or MTB for short.

Last week was filled with a whole lot of ceramah in the big hall, which is the only hall big enough for all of the 5000 new students here at UPM. The most lively part of all these talks was during the beginning and the end, when the cheering war between colleges would start. My college, Kolej 17, had really cute cheers taught to us by our facilitators, which are seniors from year 2. I shall never eat another Paddle Pop without remembering our war days in the Dewan Besar.

And then we had our first introduction to the Vet Faculty, where we met the professors and lecturers that we will be seeing for the next 5 years and learned a bit about what we will doing. It all sounds like so much fun!

Many of the people I've met here are really cool, people I'm looking forward to getting to know really well. And I think my own class, DVM 1, is going to be pretty lively. The seniors we've seen regularly, although only a year older, seem to be so much mature than we are! I wonder if thats how we'll seem to next years students.

Every day for a week now I've been practising almost 8 hours a day for the MTB which is going to be held this Saturday. MTB is a annual cultural presentation competition between the 17 colleges in UPM.
Practice usually goes on until 4 am, by which time the college is super quiet and everyone is asleep. The beginning of the week was the most draining, as I had practice till 4am, woke up again at 6.30am to catch the bus to main campus at 7am, and then had my first day of class from 8am till 5.30pm, and then continued practice at night, again till 4am. Thank god class next day started at 2pm. But MTB is so much fun! Our seniors who were in MTB last year and also our choreographer Dr. Awang are so talented, and have sacrificed so much time to guide us, I'm really in awe of them right now.

UPM is just really beautiful. I love the tree lined roads and huge expanses of green..... This place is just enormous!

There's plenty to write but I need to get back to college to sleep now.... We're practising in public tonight!