Two scores and 11 years

Today my country turns 51.

Frankly, I do not have much cause to celebrate.
The Budget 2008 was pathetic, at least for me.

And is it just me, or am I seeing the signs of anarchy in my country?

1. A blog being blocked for being ‘seditious’.
2. People gate-crashing forums claiming to champion their beliefs (while stomping on other’s) and calling others “PIGS”!
3. Policemen stealing drugs from their evidence store room.
4. A model being blown to bits with C4.
5. People swearing on holy books.
6. A doctor who unwittingly jeopardised his own career by being the unfortunate person to examine an asshole’s asshole.
7. Now they can ask, and get, your DNA on demand!
8. Some leaders are calling my race “Squatters”
9. Others call us “Ungrateful” and “Cannot be trusted”
10. Some want our blood on their traditional weapon!
11. A racist teacher subjecting her trusting pupils to verbal abuse and getting away with it.
12. Land scams, land scams, land scams!
13. People started disappearing after making statutory declarations.
14. Ministers with severe podophilia as they keep putting their foot in their mouths.
15. Flip flop decisions.
16. Rock concerts being banned, then unbanned, then banned, then unbanned…
17. Malaysia has suddenly become a land of ‘kebetulan’ (coincidences!).
18. FRU people beating a civilian senseless over a ‘broken baton’ and now claim they can’t remember anything!
19. Sudden selective amnesia seems to be an epidemic in this country.
20. Students marching over a perceived 10% infringement on their perceived God-given right.
21. People are suddenly declared a convert after their death over incredibly filmsy evidences.
22. Money and scrap metal licenses dangled like carrots over disbelieving people whom the ministers thought are moronic blardy fools.
23. Watching and listening to main stream media are like having hyperuremia, hyperkaleimia, all the encephalopathies and brain insult symptoms put together.
24. Journalists being bashed up (woe is the country who cannot respect and protect their journalists!)
25. Rapes being commited in police lock-ups!
26. Secret meetings and counter-secret meetings.
27. A doctor slapping a patient!

I could go on and on and on….

The euphoria I felt after March 8 has long died down.
I can feel the euphoria from the recent by-election fading fast as well.

But I’m gonna hold my stance.

This is my country and I love it.

I will join the fight for justice, peace and harmony.

This is just about as far as I can go in flying the “flag upside down” in case this blog gets blocked as well!

So, Happy 51st Birthday Malaysia! I LOVE YOU!

Sun, 310808 @ 0700

Jimbo moved

Today, Jimbo et al., will be moving out of the house he has called home for the last 7 years (except for a brief 10 months period).

Jimbo’s Malay neighbour is visibly sad while his other neighbour must be rejoicing.

This will mark the 6th time Jimbo and company are moving house.

There will be a 7th time, come end of the year.

Jimbo hopes that would be the final move.

Sat, 300808 @ 0700

Please pray with us

I’ve delayed writing this for a while.

Now it’s become urgent.

Some of you might have read it in the STAR a couple of days ago, about a Malaysian hiker who went missing in Montana’s Glacier National Park. He went in on the 11th of August and was supposed to come out from the 154 km hike on 18th August. He was hiking alone.

He never came out.

Yi-Jien is the eldest son of my late-pastor, Hwa-Chien. I knew him from way back when he was merely 3 feet tall or so (now he is taller than me!) and even attended his wedding last year.

It has been 11 days since he failed to emerge from the park and US searchers are thinking of calling it quits.

You can read about Yi-Jien here:
1. Kentucky Backpacker Missing in Montana’s Glacier National Park
2. Missing Hiker, Yi-Jien Hwa, in Glacier National Park

Please pray with us (his wife, mother, the entire church and everyone who knows him or his family!):
1. That the weather would clear up so that effective aerial search can be conducted.
2. The searchers may be led to search at the right place (the park is huge!).
3. For the safety of Yi-Jien.
4. For Yi-Jien’s wife and mother (Kim Guat) that they may be comforted and reassured.

Thanks for praying.

Fri, 290808 @ 1214

An update can be read here: Life Letters

Toilet delivery

Question: How many of you can boast of delivering a baby in a public toilet?

Well, I can!

Other than finding an old police report the other day, I also found this:

An old incident report! To those who are not in the medical line, let me enlighten you. Whenever something out of the ordinary happens in the hospital, the person deemed responsible will be asked to write an ‘incident report’. Incidences like patient falling from bed, jump out of the window (yes it has happened before), patients hitting doctors or vice versa (*wink* alluding to a very recent incident in a hospital in KL!) etc etc.

My particular incident happened when I was a HO in the O&G department in GHKL. I was on call that night and was manning the admission counter together with another HO.

The patient was  32 G2P1 at 37+4 days (meaning it’s her second pregnancy at 37 weeks and 4 days). When she came to the hospital, it was 5.45 am but she was already having contractions since 3 am at 1 contraction every 3 minutes.

I did a VE (vaginal examination) and found the cervix to be soft, fully effaced and the os was 4 cm with absent membrane and no liquor (liquor here is not an alcoholic beverage but the amniotic fluid). The station was at +1(station here refers to the descent of the foetal head and not to any railway or bus/taxi stop).

I made arrangments for her to be admitted into the labour room while the patient asked to go to the toilet. I then attended to another 2 patients (first one came in early labour and the other had leaking liquor), and completely forgot about the first patient. When I was examining the patient with leaking liquor, I heard the toilet door opened forcefully.

From within, I could hear her yelling: “Tolong! Tolong! Anak sudah keluar!!!” (Help! Help! My baby is out!)

I quickly ran to the toilet and there she was, squatting on the toilet seat (which was meant to be sat on and not squatted upon) and in between her thighs was the head of her baby!

Good grief!

We quickly got her onto a trolley and she immediately delivered the rest of her baby near the counter, just outside the toilet!

Mother and baby were fine.

I was not fine! Definitely not the preferred way to end a busy night on call!

Moral of the story:

NEVER EVER EVER SQUAT ON A SITTING TOILET, PREGNANT OR OTHERWISE!

Friday, 290808 @ 0700

Jimbo and the intruder

Jimbo was clearing up some old stuff over the weekend and chanced upon this:

It’s an 11 year old copy of the police report he made while he was a house officer (HO) in GHKL. He still remembers the incident vividly (you can click on the picture to read the story).

Jimbo was a HO in the Internal Medicine at the time. As a HO in Internal Medicine, his working hours were 5.30 am till 9 pm every day if he wasn’t on call (on weekends, he worked from 6.30 am till 4 pm ~ they had the cheek to call it a ‘half-day’). On the day of the incident, which was a Friday, he was particularly tired after a bad night working in the ward, and so missed hearing his alarm clock.

But he was woken up by something else.

A crash.

He opened his eyes to see many of his ‘kitchen stuff’ like fork, spoon, cup, knife, a tin of milo etc etc on the floor. The table on which he placed those things was just next to the window which has no iron grill. It was still dark then and being pretty myopic without his glasses, he got up and went near the table to investigate.

And then, he sensed movement!!!

Some one else was in the room!

His hairs stood on end. He squinted and could make out some one was hiding behind the toilet door which was adjacent to the table near the window!

A surge of adrenaline coursed inside Jimbo’s body and he gave a mighty push against the door, pinning the intruder behind the door!

The intruder gave a loud yelp and came out of hiding. There were terror in his eyes. He probably did not expect Jimbo to wake up from his slumber (he wouldn’t have if the would-be-thief wasn’t so clumsy knocking things all over the place while trying to climb out!)

Thus began a wrestling match worthy of the pedestal in the Beijing Olympics! Semi-blind Jimbo vs a half-crazed, half-in-pain, recently-pinned-behind-the-door Indonesian intruder!

Jimbo managed to do a head lock on him and the intruder was subdued. Jimbo tried yelling out for help but as expected, every single HO in the hostel block was either in fatigue-induced-coma or already on their way to the wards, so obviously no help were forthcoming.

And there we were, cutlery all over the floor (the knife being barely inches from the intruder’s reach), in the early morning darkness, each breathing heavily, intruder locked in assailant’s (Jimbo – la) grasp and both sweating profusely.

Probably sensing he was about to pass out and have acute hypoxic brain injury, then the intruder pleaded:

“Tolong la, encik. Lepaskan saya. Saya tak curi apa-apa!” (Please sir, let me go, I did not take anything).

And for some inexplicable reason, Jimbo relaxed his grip and the intruder quickly made his escape through the opening in the window where he had earlier removed 3 glass panes to gain entry into the room!

Suddenly Jimbo remembered. His work pants was hung behind the door where the intruder was hiding!
He quickly checked and found, to his dismay, his wallet was missing! The blardy thief got it!!!

And hence, the report above.

What the report did not reveal were:
1. Jimbo was (almost) in the buff, only wearing his inner wear at the time!
2. The intruder was also half naked, having used his singlet to remove the glass panes (the singlet was later found a short distance away, downstairs)

Actually it would be quite embarrasing if some one did hear Jimbo’s call for help and break down the room door only to find 2 half naked men locked in a rather uncomfortable compromising position! LOL!!!

I could imagine in my head now the media’s headline:

“HALF NAKED GHKL HO DISCOVERED WITH HALF NAKED INDONESIAN MAN LOCKED IN COMPROMISING POSITION IN HOSTEL ROOM!!!”

That would be mortifying!

To this day, Jimbo still wonders how he got the courage to wrestle and pin that fella down!

Thurs, 280808 @ 0700

Loved to Bits!

Some one loves Jimbo to bits!

AWWwwwww………so pai seh la.

LOL!

Jimbo loves you guys to bits too! Am so proud you guys are starting a new chapter in your life!

PS: That’s why Jimbo does not like to pose for photos with others because he stands out like a sore tall willow (how come other Malaysians are not so tall?)

Wed, 270808 @ 1200

Merdeka Joy

I noticed an unusual sight while driving back from KL after work yesterday.

None of the cars on the opposite lane on the highway was displaying the Malaysian Flag! We are just 4 days away from celebrating the 51st birthday of the nation. In previous years, it was a common sight to see cars displaying the national flag (some over zealously so) but not this time round. I drove for 60 km and saw not a single car carrying the flag. Something is wrong.

So, Tun Mahathir was right when he said the nation is encompassed in a somber depressive mood. I, for one, was in no mood to celebrate at all, after all the national filth and the personal hardships.

Until yesterday.

Until the Permatang Pauh by-election result was announced (I had to source it on the internet at the government controlled media did not bother to broadcast the result, shame on them!).

And suddenly, my heart felt lighter and there is a glimmer of hope in the midst of all the hopelessness.

Some one from the ruling regimen (oops, did I use the word ‘regimen’?) said, “Why gamble with your future when you know that only BN can rule this country effectively?”

Why, Mr-Clueless-cum-Arrogant Politician, I’d rather gamble on an uncertain future where I could have a say in making the country a better and prosperous one than to wallow in the filth of hopelessness and despair under the iron fist rule of the current regimen (oops, I used that word again). I am willing to take the gamble because I KNOW BN CANNOT RULE THIS COUNTRY EFFECTIVELY!

Cheers! (And yeah, BN fellas, go lick your wounds and please remember to fulfill all the promises you made to the people in Permatang Pauh during the campaigning period).

Happy Merdeka, everyone!!!

Wed, 270808 @ 0749

Blog Pause

No mood to blog today.

Maybe after the by-election (and all the mud-slinging) is over and the budget has been announced, I might get some inspiration. I am personally hoping for a reduction in personal income tax ~ I mean it’s ridiculous to give a third of my earnings back to the government (I wouldn’t mind if they use it wisely…)

Tues, 260808 @ 0700

Convocation Blooper

I attended the IMU convocation last Saturday (it was compulsory, so I HAD to attend ~ but there were a few students that I wanted to say “Well done and all the best” to).

I spotted this sign at the foot of the stairway leading to the robing room.

You can’t fault the parents of graduating students who might think that the institute to which they have invested a substantial amount of money for educating their children is out to ‘ROB’ them one last time!

Thankfully they got the spelling right at another sign at the top of the stairs.

Mon, 250808 @ 0732, the undergrad exam is over but the MRCP PACES course is about to begin. Sigh…

Little Mechanics

A church mate’s car got involved in a minor accident 2 weeks ago. I snapped this picture right after the church service.

Two little mechanics were checking out the damage and probably discussing the repair plan and more importantly, how much they can con the driver for the repairs!

Sun, 240808 @ 0700