cups

the smallest things are really quite sufficient to make me happy...

*smiles*

i just treated myself to two new cups today when i passed by House, this shop on Lygon selling household stuff!!

since i drink green tea every night, cups are just a very important detail of my life....

the nicest cup make my green tea taste doubly better

and the dodgiest ones just make it all taste so yucky

and one of them is bright red and white... (yes, Rach, i DO love red and white!! traffic lights!!)

and one of them is black and white....

and together they make such a nice vibrant addition to my otherwise dull and cluttered study desk....

nothing like looking at my two new cups to make me feel happy... and it makes my purse quite happy too!! the cups were cheap,only $1.95 each!!

more motivation to hit the books, i must say...

strange thing how cups can make my day...

*stares at my cups dreamily*

MSN can draw??

it's funny how you can find the smallest thing to be happy and in my case, amazed about and can't gushing on and on about...

i found out some time ago that MSN messenger supports both the function of typing and drawing manually!!

and you get the most fun from drawing stuff using the latter function!!

proof of the above statement:
PJ was using MY LAPPY on MY MSN, chatting with Kelvin and they both had a whopping good time with the drawing function.

first, they drew airplanes and the V Line train that PJ had to take to get to Geelong.

then, they started writing "LOL"s in super big script to outdo each other (like that was fun...)

then, they had fun drawing me as a stick figure with totally ugly hairstyles as though i'm a cavewoman who has never seen a comb in her life... (puh-leese!! i'm a girl who loves places importance on looks ok??)

then they had fun saying random stuff like "PJ LIKES METLINK!!" due to the 2-hour-long ride taht he has to endure to get to Geelong Hospital for his clinicals on wednesday afternoon.

all i can say is
SERVES YOU RIGHT, PJ FOR MESSING WITH MY HAIR IN THE FIRST PLACE!!

*laughs out loud*

and i bet u dreamt of trains and trams and the Kew girl that night!! and slept walk all the way to Geelong that night but managed to get back to our 9am lecture the next day on time!!

but those two dudes did cheer my day up.... that i have to give them credit....
all thanks to MSN and its function to draw AND type....

the little wonders that dominate our lives....

VEAL, BEEF, DEER etc

so to celebrate the end of week 2 horrible lectures and equally horrible PBL, i decided to do a bit of therapeutic cooking.

yes, cooking IS therapeutic, good for the med soul... just like a cup of warm nourishing soup...

so i decided to use my crockpot and cook this Southern Beef Stew recipe that i got from the internet...

and so happily and full of hope, i went to Safeway and proceeded to buy the ingredients that my kitchen lacked.

and lo and behold, at the meat section, to my delight, i found meat at low prices. sure, they might not be fresh enough. but, hey, i'm going to cook it on that day itself. so what the heck, i happily took one of them, forgetting to check the label as i assumed that red meat=beef or mutton...

and the freaking label says VEAL... and the english pro that i am, thought it was some form of cow, like a baby cow or maybe just some part of the cow, liek its stomach or tender underbelly which i was inclined to believe at that time...

so i paid the freaking LOW PRICE and went home happily yet again...

and HAPPILY AGAIN, i peeled the carrots, celery and whatever that it needs and proceeded to slow cook the whole thing.

and when i checked on it after 3 hours, there's this weird smell coming out from it... and i just assumed it was the thyme that i put in that had this weird smell.

so happily, i served it to Kelvin and the first bite i took.... the conversation went thus:


Me: EWWW. this tastes weird.

Kelvin: (being the gentleman he was) no lah, it smells good. i could smell it from the study table lah. can eat one.

Me: NOOO. i don't think it's supposed to taste THIS weird... (makes a sad face)

Kelvin: (took one slurp of the soup) Oh my! (that's his signature exclaimation) this IS weird. what did you put it??

Me: See, i told you so.... (happiness dissipating already) i just put in carrots, celery and potatoes and thyme.... and veal...

Kelvin: (started laughing LOUDLY) my dear, veal is deer meat...

Me: really?? NOOOOO, veal is beef!!

Kelvin: NOOOO, IT'S DEER MEAT!!!

and thus ends this conversation....

the next day, i Answers.com the word veal.... and this is what i got:

Veal is the meat of a baby calf!! which means its cow!!! or rather young beef!!

so there!!

but the question remains: why the heck did my beef stew turned out to be soooo darn gross??!!

Condolences...

and there there was a sms that told me everything and yet nothing.

it's kinda ironic how life throws you a pebble and you just fall right down dazed with a bruise on your knee and you just sit there, gazing at nothing with the outward signs of bleeding and the pain in your heart.

it's so not what i expected.

it's so not what i wished for.

and it's certainly not what i would want for my dear friend.

it's not even something that you would wish upon your bitterest of enemies for goodness sake.

darn it all...

my books are opened and nothing is going in. it's just the realization of it all occupying every cell in my body....

All i can say and want to say to her right beside her, holding her hand is...

I'm sorry for everything that happened....
Words can't even express how sorry I am for everything.
There's this lump of sadness weighing me down
and also, regret for not being able to see him for the last time.
and now, i'm back in Melbourne and he has passed on to a better place.
and how I wish I just said "Hi" to him "How good it is to see you again!"
and most of all, how I wish I could have met up with her before i came back
how I wish we could be together once again, everything like normal.

Now, everything will be different.
But I know she will be strong.
She always was.
and always will be.
And she has her family around her
Her friends
God

I still remember vaguely the few times that I did see him and talk to him, he was always the smiley one, always laughing, pretty much the mold from where you were made from. my first impression of him was he was very much like Mr Santa Claus, minus the tummy and white beard, but with a full head of white hair, definitely warm and friendly.

I pray that you'll be alright, my dear. I know you will be strong for your sake and those that depend on you. But in times that you are not, just look beside you and we'll be there, with chocs, hankies, flowers, shoulders to cry on, anything you need. we'll do anything for you. I know I will for the wonderful girl that you are and will be.

And he will be proud of you and everything that you are and will be.

And he'll live on in your heart and ours always.


XOXO Mel who is heartbroken

i just realised something when i was checking my clinical placements for this semester. (ended up at Western Hospital in Footscray.. yummylicious viet rice noodles, here i come!)

i realised that i have a thing for trains and trams in Melbourne...

weird kinda affinity for something that moves....

i like to look out the windows and watch the world literally pass by in a whirl of colours.

wondering where those people in that cute little brownstone are heading, whether they are a family and whether they are happy...

or maybe even that cute little boy that i saw that one time waving to me with his fat little fists on his father's shoulders as the train passed by. i wonder if he like trains like me, if he is going to be a doctor like me, if he loves the whirl of colours at the window like me....

i just love the whoooosh of train...

super uber fun....

Random recipe

Creamy Crockpot Chicken:

2 breast fillets
1 can of Cream of Chicken
1/4 cup of cooking wine
mushrooms

Put that all into a crockpot on HIGH until chicken gets tender. Scoop out the gravy and put it in a pot to simmer. Also add:

8oz of sour cream

Then heat the gravy and serve while hot with the chicken.

Voila!

Easy peasy dish for students. Serves 4 too i might add so ration according to appetite and number of dinner partners.

and most of all, it's fuss-free! no hassle chopping up, cooking, frying... just plain healthy stewing.

and did you notice that there's no oil involved??!! did you?? did you?? healthy, oil-free food for the brain... lots of proteins.

for the vegemaniac, just put in celery and carrots to stew with the chicken and add brocolli in the pot with the gravy.

omg, i sound like freaking Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson...


p.s. i did try this recipe so it totally rocks! and so little dirty dishes to clean afterwards....the mark of a good student-ey dish for the uninitiated.

due to the effects of Week 1 lectures and PBL...

Listening to: Heaven by DJ Sammy

Finishing up: my PBL for tomorrow

Ingesting: nothing (after having lectures on obesity and nutrition, it's no wonder i'm half scared to death about the things i put into my mouth, all the while thinking "is this low in GI?", "is this going to increase my BMI?" .. it's so frustrating that it's not funny)

Thinking: about morbidly obese males who might have pseudo-micropenis (due to the fat pad on their scrotums) and pseudo-gynaecomastia (abnormal glandular breast development) and morbidly obese females who might have polycystic ovarian syndrome.

omg.... i sound intelligent for once...

i'm so having nightmares about saturated fats chasing me with fat-clobbered fists and fat-dripping teeth....

anyone up for ROund 2??

it's the start of a new semester in the life of Mel the workin'-it meddie...

it's just Monday but it's worth 1 PBl tutorial and 2 lectures...

talk about workin' it...

and the whole uni is quiet except for the frantic shuffling or some may say the purposeful striding of meddies of all years.

we are the only insane ones back for round 2... can practically hear the "ding ding ding" bell of ROUND 2....

even dents are still on their sweet sweet holidays but we are back and the timetable is hitting us with a vengeance complete with the Club of Harsh Reality.

but look at it this way, people, i'm 1/12 my way through med school...

not so bad for a girl who once dreamt of becoming part of Doctors Without Borders...

i remain optimistic.


and so my fairytale starts again... *smiles*

I'M A BIG GIRL!!

*ROAR*

I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!!


lol, yea right... who am i kidding??!!

insomnia setting in...
must be the episode of Incredible Tales that i watched on Channel 5....
and for goodness sake, it was not THAT scary...
i think....

another few more days before Melbourne, here i come...
2nd Semester bearing down on me...
and already the timetable is looking oh-so-scary....
what the heck...
another 5.5 years to go....

feeling quite out of sorts now...
must be again, the insomnia setting in...
shall count sheep now..
or i could just count the hours i'm going to waste on getting the anatomy of the chest right....
or i could HAVE brought back my teddy dog, Jay from Melbourne where he's been very lonely and cold...
or i could warm up hot milk...
or i could read the book on my bedside table...

or i could just list the ways i could put myself to sleep...

you're leaving on jetplane as i'm typing this... never was one for geography but i think you'll be over the ocean now...

just say that you'll take care of yourself...

XOXO Mel

shoes phase

a girl can never have too many shoes.

neither can a girl can have too many phases.

at least both the above statements apply to me.

coz the whole have-as-many-shoes-as-you-can phase has hit me and hit me real darn hard.

so just in under half hour in singapore, i bought 3 pairs of shoes.
one from Ipanema.
two from Far East Plaza.

one pair of simple sandals. very Amazonian goddess
oen pair of black high heel wedges that are gorgeous
one pair of white low heel pumps

but i still want more.
on my wish list: black Converse sneaks, red high heeled pumps, the most perfect flats ever made and whatever that catches my fancy...