Post-Holiday Update

Just came back from Bali on Sunday.

IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!

We did lotsa watersports including Parasailing, Bananaboat, Flying Fish and Snorkling. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel at Kuta and had the beach right at our doorstep where there were tons of people surfing. However, the beach was quite "Yuck" and crowded so we gave surfing a miss.

It was also raining the night we checked into the hotel and gloomy/drizzling the next morning. Still, we decided to just go with it and took a ride out to Tanjong Benoa for watersports. The bad weather did not last long and the sun came out. We ended up having the most fun of the entire trip and even managed to get slightly sunburnt.

The next day, we hired a passenger van and went sight seeing. We went shopping at handicraft markets (where old ladies kept trying to sell me oversized wooden carvings of erect penises with a bottle opener attached to the balls).


I ended up buying a large wooden whind chime,



a Balinese musical thingie made out of half a coconut, and







a thunder making thingie
(which I later realized looked more Australian than Balinese)







Sidetrack:

While we are on the topic of handicrafts... I made my own Duct Tape Wallet!
I did it the night before flying off to Bali and used it as my primary wallet while overseas as a trial run.











I didn't have time to figure out how to add in pockets for cards but I had a rough idea of what to do. After almost a week of intensive use, it turned out quite satisfactory. No peeling (Thanks to my well thought out duct taping) and no sticky residue (as is the problem with most home-made duct tape wallets). Perhaps I can make more customized wallets for sale. Hmm...

Anyway back to Bali...

We ended the day with a BBQ seafood dinner by the beach at Jimbaran bay while watching the sunset.
Simply gorgeous!

Note: Don't order food at the beach before the sun goes down. Wait till after sunset when the blasted flies goes off to lala land.

On our last day, we decided to check out the pool at the hotel and boy were we glad. Lots of Eye Candy, a beach volleyball court, water basketball and water volleyball. A portion of the pool even had a sandy bottom (Sand Bar) and we had so much fun creating such a ruckus and making a scene with our rotton basketball skills much to the amusement of the other pool users.

One of the highlights of the trip was the discovery of a Krispy Kreme in a nearby shopping mall. We actually arrived after closing time on our first night (thanks to the rain) but thankfully, we decided to check it out despite the lack of lights. THEY WERE STILL OPEN and they allowed us to place customized orders for doughnuts which they made on the spot for us. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!! The best doughnuts I've tasted since Dunkin' Doughnuts! Needless to say, we (I) bought and ate too much. In fact, we went back almost every night and on the last day, we even bought dozens home. We had like at least 8 boxes of doughnuts between us as carry on luggage. Heh heh.

Note: I'd like to say that I didn't buy any home ok... I've had so much during our stay in Bali that it was kinda like an overkill. The 8 boxes all belonged to the girls who were buying them back for their family or colleagues. I couldn't stand to look at another doughnut so I passed.

On the down side though, our flight was delayed by 5 hours and so we spent the time wandering aimlessly round the departure lounge of the airport. (Deja vu - See post on Bangkok trip).

We wanted to have a meal at McDonalds but found out that they were out of McCrispy Chicken so extremely disappointed, we found a small cafe and plonked ourselves down for a couple hours' wait. About 2 hours into our cafe virgil, I was playing with my trusty PSP (Thank you SONY) when I heard an announcement for our flight number and was told that we could collect refreshments at the service counter (My ears only pick up stuff relating to food.) So I quickly collected everyone's boarding passes (Somehow I was glad I did so cos they only wanted those as proof) and we were each given a box of McCrispy and a soft drink from McDonalds!!! Talk about a wake-up call. Everyone was so happy and suddenly awake upon finding out that we had free chicken that we were craving so much. Ha ha ha.

However, my enjoyment was short-lived. I'm not sure what caused it but as soon as I finished the chicken, I felt really sick... nausea started rearing its ugly head and one of its best friends, stomach churns, appeared not long after. It could have been the iced latte I had about an hour ago... or the yucky chocolate-peanutbutter smoothie (Yeah... bad case of judgement there) I had at Hard Rock Hotel in before leaving for the airport... I just had too many sporadic inputs of food to be able to pin point the culprit.

That made my flight back to Singapore pure misery. don't get me wrong... I love plane rides. In fact, just give me a nice plane ride, a nice hotel and I'll call it a great vacation. However, because of the nausea and churning stomach, I felt that the entire flight couldn't be short enough. Every jolt of the plane (there was plenty of turbulence... what luck...) caused a fresh wave of discomfort and what's more... the guy sitting behind me started eating his McCrispy, which he had saved till the plane was on cruising altitude. upon finishing his food, he started belching every minute or so. Talk about puke inducing smells man...

After a while, I started to doze off uneasily but was woken up by the stewardess asking us to pull out our tray tables as they were giving us complementary noodles. Weng, She She and I politely waved our rejection of the offered meal and tried to get back to sleep (It was almost 2am). However, the guy behind me did not follow in our example and proceeded to enjoy his noodles with great gusto. The smell of more food simply did not aid my discomfort and to make things worse, his latest meal brought on another batch of bleching and the smells undigested food. This time, it didn't stop till we got off the plane.

Talk about gross...

Anyway, we left the airport around 3 plus in the morning and I shared a cab home with Weng and Kimmie. After dumping my clothes in the laundry basket, I grabbed a quick shower and went to bed close to 5am.

I was woken up around 8 in the morning by a sudden violent churning of my stomach and I made a rush to the toilet. To avoid too much graphic details and to cut a long story short, I was "peeing" out my butt for 2 days. I went to see a doctor on the 2nd day out of fear that I might have contracted cholera or something (Thank you Medical Microbiology Lessons) but the doctor assured me that it might be something mild like Travellers' Diarrhoea. He did however ask me to go back and see him if my condition doesn't improve and he prescribed me some antibiotics "just to be on the safe side".

Oh and he gave me 2 days of sick leave. Heh heh

All in all, despite the sick thingie and the flight delay, we had a blast. If I can't find a job by the end of April, I'll be so tempted to fly back to Bali to spend a month there bumming. Heh heh.

Skipped school yesterday because I was purging from my rear end but decided I was well enough to attend class tonight. Noticed lots of new faces in class... did they *GASP* add more people into our already overcrowded class??? I wouldn't be surprised.

Back to work tomorrow... Not looking forward to it but I'll just keep telling myself..."ONLY 2 MORE MONTHS TO GO"over and over again and keep myself occupied with the mess that I'm expecting to face after more than a weeks' absence.

Talk about post-holiday blues man... bleh!

Freedom!

THE EXAMS ARE OVER!!!

2 weeks till Term 2 of Year 2 Starts...
5 Days till Bali trip
1 Day to the Chinese New Year!

Here's wishing all the Chinese Readers "GONG XI FA CAI". For all you non-Chinese folks, Happy Holidays!

Wow... End of Exams, Chinese New Year Holidays, On Leave till the end of February and an upcoming trip to Bali... so many things to celebrate...

Oh wait... here's one more...

I'VE FINALLY RESIGNED!!!!

After months and months of deliberation and endless pondering, I finally told Princess Porkchops, Surolan and Mr Testosterone (In that order) that I have decided to leave and that I am not turning back.

It's no secret that I have not been happy with my job. The past few months have been particularly bad. It's an endless waltz of distractions, pointless tasks and the worst was having to put up with all the blatant disregard for rules, regulations and staff welfare.

Besides that, there's also the never ending workload. Being an anal-retentive kind of guy, I hate having my stuff messed up by others. At work, all my stocks are constantly being rummaged through all because some people drive the staff into a panicking frenzy, making them rush like hell up and down the stairs to get medication. Because they are in such a rush, they end up making a mess of the pharmacy and either forget to clean it up or simply do not have the time to do so till they finally do forget.

As I was typing the last paragraph, I just received a SMS from Xaris saying that Mr Testosterone has suddenly scheduled a lobectomy on Tuesday... WTF man! It's still a public holiday. Because of that, Xaris and RS has to swap their day and night shift because Mr T doesn't want RS in surgery with him. I take that to mean that Xaris has to not only entertain the on-call clients, man the phones and hospitalized cases but now she has a surgery to assist in as well. See what I mean about blatant disregard for Staff Welfare?

He was the one who, despite the fact that we are severely under-staffed for an operation of this magnitude, insists that we have too many nurses.

He was the one who insisted that he only needs 2 nurses a day to be able to run the clinic. Yah. 2 nurse who have to:
01. Answer phone calls.
02. Register Patients.
03. Discharge Patients.
04. Do a start-up for him.
05. Help him type.
06. Prepare for surgery.
07. Clean up after surgery.
08. Run blood tests.
09. Assist him in consult.
10. Prepare medications.
11. Attend to hospitalized cases.
12. Run around looking for something he "left lying around somewhere"
13. Help THE OTHER VET ON DUTY with items 04-10.

Let me say, for the record that manning the recept at the clinic is a full-time job by itself. Most of the time, at least 2 of the 5 lines are ringing while at the same time, there are people standing at the reception counter waiting to register, buy something or pay the bill. Let's not forget having to deal with irritated clients who are usually made to wait for an hour (at least) because someone decides to book in appointments every 15 minutes knowing very well that he can take up to 45 mins per case.

What's more, the clients that usually come specially to see him are not exactly among the friendliest. Most of them are those who thinks that they are the most important people in the world and that others exist only to cater to their every whim and fancy.

God... I hate this place. I can't live with my conscience or face my colleagues if I have to play a further part in this debacle.

Just yesterday, I was talking to CW about the main reasons for my wanting to leave. I was in the middle of a sentence that went along the lines of "... I'm taking this place as a test and as far as I am concerned, I've passed and it's time to move on." when Mr Testosterone walked in and overheard what I said.

Mr T : A test? And you passed? You haven't been to the outside.
Me : I've been outside. I came from there remember? It's much better than what I'm going through here.
Mr T : ... (walks away)

The walking away thing is something he likes to do which really strikes a raw nerve with me. It doesn't matter what you are discussing with him. He'll just walk away halfway through a meeting, halfway through giving instructions and halfway through a conversation. If you really need him to hear whatever it is you have to say, you'll have to run after him while speaking and desperately hope whatever you are saying actually registers. To me, it's very very bad manners. It doesn't matter who you think you are. At least respect others by letting them finish or at least excuse yourself. He likes to just walk off as though the conversation was not taking place at all. It's just plain rude.

Anyway, Less than 5 minutes later, Mr Testosterone starts giving me pointless tasks. He started pulling books out of bookshelves behind the L2 recept and tells me to go stamp the company chop on it. He also tells me to contact a particular supplier (whom I have repeatedly told him that is overcharging us and is extremely untrustworthy) to order a veterinary textbook. (Something which he usually does himself so as to bypass me.)

All this he managed to do without looking at me.

I think I am officially in his bad books.

Well... looks like I'm in the market for a new job. Let me know if someone has or know of a job offer in the Biomedical Sciences field, preferably in a laboratory setting. I'm halfway through my BSc in Biomedical Sciences though and prior to this, my only experience in a related field would be my stint in the clinic as a Veterinary Nurse before I took on administrative duties as Manager (Read: Glorified Cleaner, Scapegoat/Punchbag and All-in-one HR, Purchaser, Secretary, handyman, Nurse, Receptionist, Customer Service, Public Relations, Courier and did I mention punchbag?).

Full resume available for genuine potential employers on request.

One-of-a-kind Model Employee! Available now for a Limited Time Only!

Just thought I'd advertise wherever I can... you never know who's reading this. :)

Anyway... enough about such unpleasant stuff... It's the New Year! Out with the bad and on with the good!


Now Playing: Lumines (PSP)

Well... I'm not exactly playing with it right now (I'm still kinda hooked on WTF) but I love to have a go on it every now and then.

This game is a variation on the classic Tetris with a musical twist. The game play is pretty simple. Stack up two-coloured 4x4 blocks and make them disappear. The more blocks you can clear at once, the more points you get.

It's mindless fun that, like Tetris, can get you hooked for hours on end. What's more, this game comes with stunning background animated graphics and a radical soundtrack to match. As you progress to a higher level, you unlock more background skins and matching music tracks.

What adds to the fun is that every single movement you make with the blocks creates additional sounds like rifts. As you play, you'll unconsciously match your block movements to the rhythm of the soundtrack and if has a very club DJ-like feel.

Unlike conventional "brick" games, the blocks you match do not disappear instantly. A timeline moves continuously across the game board in synch with the rhythm and clears the blocks as it touches them. This twist makes the game slightly more challenging as you have to take into consideration the extra time it'll take for a space to be cleared before you can dump new blocks in.

This is one of the first few games that were launched with the PSP more than a year ago and since then, a sequel (Lumines 2) has been released that I have yet to get my hands on. (Hint Hint...)

As I said earlier, it's mindless fun and a great way to pass the time. Add a killer soundtrack and the rift-like sounds and it's a thumbs-up in my books.

101 Questions

I have an exam on Medical Microbiology tomorrow morning...

I've gone through about 80% of my notes so far... remembering what I've gone through is a totally different story.

I'm more worried about my Immunology exam on Friday... I've only glanced through the first 10% of my notes and I didn't recall exactly understanding a word if it...

Anyway, in case you are wondering "What the hell is this guy doing blogging instead of studying?", I'm taking a break ok... my mind's too full to concentrate on another "Pathogenesis of Escherichia coli Infections" so I thought I'd make some room by dumping some junk info here. Hee hee.

Actually, the real reason is that I was going through my Friendster bulletin board (Yes I actually bother to look at it) and I found another one of those self-interview thingies (Call me narcissistic but I'm a sucker for them). That plus I was kinda almost overdue for another blog entry so *Tada* here's something to fill up space!

Here it is:
(Note: The ones in red were missing from the original so I kinda made it up based on the category.)

101 Questions You Ask Yourself

001: Real Name – Julian Poh Pin Ee
002. Nickname – Julz, Jules
003. Single or taken - Taken
004. Zodiac Sign - Libra
005. Male or Female - Male
006. Elementary School – Temasek Primary
007. Favorite Color - Blue
008. How many buddies on your aim - Huh?
009. Screen name – Julz
010. Hair Color - Black
011. Long or Short - Short (I assume it's hair length. If it's the other thing, then LONG)
012. Think or Thin - Thick (My waist you dirty ba****ds.)
013. Big or Small - Small (My eyes lah. You people ah... so dirty minded.)
014. Eye Color – Erm... Dark brown... I think...
015. Are you a health freak - Ha! Pass the fries and pizza!
016. Height - 1.76 meters
017. Do you have a crush on someone - Yep.
018. Do you like yourself – But of course!
019. What do you like about yourself - EVERYTHING!
020. Think you're awesome – Awesome and Fantastic man!
021. Piercings – None.
022. Tattoos – None though I'd like to get one.
023. Righty or Lefty - Righty

___Your 'Firsts'___
024. Surgery - Orchidectomy. Don't ask.
025. First piercing – As I said... No piercings!
026. First best friend – Pravit in Primary School.
027. First Award – Gardening (I was the only sucker in the gardening club in primary school)
028. First Sport You Joined – Willingly, Windsurfing. Unwillingly, soccer.
029. First pet – Hamsters... the mother ate her babies and freaked me out.
030. First vacation – Genting Highlands (Malaysia)
031. First Concert – Robbie Williams (Singapore)
032. First love – 17... I try not to think about it.
033. First Job - Toys R' us Stock boy.
034. First Movie - Show White & The 7 Dwarves
035. First CD - Pure Moods
036. First DVD - Lord of the Rings - The 2 Towers (Extended Edition)
037. First Dog - Perseus (JRT)
038. First... (Damn running out of ideas) Laptop? - IBM R40
039. First MP3 player - 3rd Generation iPod
040. First Mobile Phone - Nokia 3210
041. First Gadget - SONY Clie (Forgot the model... The orange one)
042. First Near-Death Experience - Fainting while windsurfing. Woke up underwater.
043. First Hairstyle - (From photos) Beatles Mop Top
044. First... (Brain dead) 2nd Dog? - Duncan (Siberian Husky)
045. First PSX game - Final Fantasy VII
046. First Game Boy Game - Tetris
047. Girst GBA game - Pokemon Fire Red
048. First PSP game - Darkstalkers Chronicles

(Phew) So many bloody questions missing...

___Currently___
049. Eating - I just had a spoonful of Goober Grape Peanut Butter Jelly.
050. I'm drinking - Dr Peppers
051. I'm reading - Medical Microbiology Course Notes
052. I'm about to – Find ways to delay going back to my revision.
053. Listening to - My dad playing "Populus: The Begining" (It's a video game) outside my room.
054. Irritated by - My dad playing "Populus: the Begining" outside my room.
055. Waiting For – Bali Trip after the Chinese New Year.
056. Wishing for - Exams to be over.
057. Wearing – Adidas Polo-T and Jeans (My work clothes)

___Your Future__
058. Want Kids? - Never. Nah Uh! No way!
059. Want to Get Married? - Hmmm... maybe not.
060. Careers in Mind - Zoologist, Wildlife conservationist...
061. Future colleagues - Jeff Corwin, Nick Baker, Sponge Bob, Batman, Superman.
062. Coffin - Steel. Like in Starship Troopers... I also want to get released into space.
063. Dream Job - Professional Beach Bum (with 5-figure monthly salary).
064. What I'll do tomorrow - Take Exams, Cry, Do March schedule, Put Stocks away.
065. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...
066. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...
067. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...

__Which is better with the opposite sex?__
068. Lips or Eyes?- Eyes
069. Hugs or Kisses – Hugs
070. Shorter or Taller – Shorter
071. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...
072. Romantic, Spontaneous – Both please!
073. Nice Stomach or Nice Arms – Arms
074. Sensitive or Loud - Sensitive
075. Hook-up or Relationship - Relationship
076. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...
077. Trouble Maker or Hesitant? - ... Hesitant...? I don't understand this question.

___Have you ever___
078. Kissed a Stranger – No but I've seen quite a few I'd like to.
079. Drank bubbles – Erm... like in the ones you blow? Not that I can remember.
080. Lost glasses/contacts - Yah man... Lost my glasses doing jumping jacks in the jungle at 4am during my stint in the army. It was so dark I didn't even know I lost them till someone found it all stepped on... but unbroken! Also lost my contacts when I fell face first (painfully) while wakeboarding.
081. Ran away from home - Nope.
082. Broken any bones - Nope. Don't wish to.
083. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...
084. Broken Someone's Heart - Unknowingly maybe.
085. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...
086. Turned Someone Down – Yes. (Job applicants, salesmen, invitations to weddings...)
087. Cried When Someone Died - Yes. I'm useless... I cry even when a client's dog dies.
088. Cried at school – Yes. Can't remember why... as I said... totally useless.

___Do You Believe In___
089. Yourself – Of course! I'm so totally believable.
090. Miracles – Yes! I need miracles for my exams. PLEASE!!!
091. Love at first sight – Yes... *sigh*
092. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...
093. Ahh... forget it... My brain's dead...
094. Magic – Yep. I perform magic everyday at work. Computer not working? *Tadah* Try it again.
095. Heaven - Not really. In God yes. Heaven is so subjective.
096. Santa Clause – Seriously... I see him everywhere every December! how can you not believe?
097. Sex on the first date – Depends on how things turn out.
098. Kissing on the First Date - If I'm not about to turn tail and run... yeah why not?
099. Angels - I'm living proof of one man. BELIEVE!!!

___Answer Truthfully___
100. Is There one or more people You Want To be with right now? - Yes.
101. Would you repost this survey? - Duh... I've already done that. Stupid question. Let me do a question of my own.
101b. What are the important considerations for obtaining a specimen for diagnosis of a bacterial disease/ Describe the procedures that would be carried out in the diagnostic laboratory to determine the identity of the bacterium causing the disease.
...
...
...
... Damn... I totally can't answer it... ARGH!!!!!!!!

Back to my revisions... *sigh*