Boredom strikes trial!

Oh well, I've been looking at some old pictures and I thought I might try making them looking lomo-ish. Heheh here are my attempts! ahhaha

X'mas dinner.

We had a dinner together with my pod-mates and along with AD and his family. It was a good meal together indeed. The buffet was excellent, and I guess it wasn't even buffet. It was an eat all you can, but served personally to the table. Great innit!? And all less than a tenor!!

Here are some pix of those who attended and of course, Fathema! ehhe




Me carrying Fathema.... build that muscles sani!

Final End Year Pod-Do

It's almost the end of the year now. As a tradition, we had a usual xmas and end of year pod-do. This year it was held at the Greenhouse, where for two consecutive years it was at Wetherspoon. Anyhow, it was a great night as usual, and we had the initiation for the 1st years too. Although not many had turned up, but it was still a good night to end the year of 2008 (academic wise). I think it was a well deserved night out, although I managed to break about 4 glasses this time round! ahahha We end up at BASSMent before we decided to go home. Anyhow, have fun and enjoy the holidays everyone!!






The drinking game was won by the 2nd years, although the prize had to be given to the first, as they were cheating! ahahha And I lost my voice and my hearing, all due to the shouting of the oath and the thumping sounds from loud speakers. But I must say, the drinking game was much better and organised last year than this time round. Blame the tiny space at Greenhouse.

Stress will end soon! Really,,,?

I've had a 3-4 weeks of stress, all devoted to my current work. My group have now refused of even saying it as a word - The Portfolio. It is now known as the "P" word! Well, last week I was this walking zombie, but now I'm a happy bunny again snapping my camera away in thirst of shots which hadn't been able to do. Although I have not completed my work as yet, but I'm good per se as I have foundation laid out, and 4000 words done! So that's about 2-3000 words more to go in 4 days? I even had to sacrifice from going out to the Holly Ball last night.... =(

Just an update about the tunic...

Well, it's grey that's for sure. But they're now not as grey as it was before. Been washing it and soaking it over and over in vanish. Now it's fading away on the road to whitening again. Although, I must admit, damage has been done. Rectification will only leave a scar!

At the moment, it has been a good laugh. I've been called the smurf, blondie, and many more. Just because I wear grey tunic in clinic! ahhaha Even the lecturers had a good laugh. But the thing is, no one would noticed it unless I stand next to other colleagues of mine (thanks Megan for the contrast!) ahaha. And I assume there is no end to this as it keeps on going everytime I put it on!

oh oh! My patient was happy when I issued the orthotics I prescribed. Many good comments about the finesse of it! I'm jolly happy! At first, patient was hesitant and he even commented that they looked like things from the medieval times! ahhaha As soon as he put it on, it was perfect! Glad! Although I had to alter some due to wrong markings on my positive cast. That's just minor. But I had to confess to him that it took me good 4 weeks just to complete it! Ain't a simple task to do.

Oh, it's nice and sunny today. Nice Winter sunny, which means I had to wrap myself albeit the sun. Shahin came along and he was my protege in photography. I'm no pro myself, but I could handle few bits and pieces on a compact digital cam. So I showed him how to use those features on his new camera. I must say, the camera is good! Way good from what I had expected earlier. The macro shots are excellent, low light shots are just nice with less grainy noise. Anyhow, I'll leave you a picture taken today to end this entry. I'm back to the P word now!



And was lazy to cook, bought myself calamari and chips for lunch from Odyssey!! Woot Woot! Nothing beats eating English fat cut chips from a chippy with the cold breeze blowing! It has never failed to blow me away....

DOOMED! Grey tunics?

Yes, it's weekend again. Double the horror this time. Not only the dateline is just a pinch away, my tunics turned bluish grey!

My tunics which were previously white in colour is now bluish grey!

Before



After



Well, it's not that I'm stupid enough to put both tops and bottoms in together, cos I;ve done it fine, but... I was stupid to put it in 90 deg!! The first day of clinic, we were warned that the tunics should not be washed in temp more than 40 deg! Now that I'm in year 3, I had forgotten all those basics!

So, had no one to turn to, I've told Phil what happened. He gave me tons of remedies. Now my tunics are in the machine. Just wish me for the best!

Problem is, both my tunics are in there. Not unless they're just plain white, I could get it from any uniform shop. But this has the uni and school logo. This is doomed indeed!

Wish me luck already!

UPDATE!

Well.... it didnt work! arrgh!!!! I even tried Vanish... I'm so mentally exhausted and my pocket has got a big hole now.



Just look at that tunics compared to the white lab coat!

Finally... orthotics off my chest!

Alhamdulillah, the prayers had been granted. I finally got it done, although I managed to cheat. I finally able to complete a pair or mega-difficult casted orthotics out of polypropylene material. Considering the times I had failed, and the amount of materials I had wasted, I am pleased to say I'm happy and proud! Many didn't even think they were the same piece from what I started with, until the final result. Everyone was just so impressed. Not to brag here, but hey... I need that energy and motivational boost here... ehhehe.. so I need to find ways to do that.. eheh

Anyway, reflecting on this hard task, it was actually beneficial. It has paid off the perseverance. C'mon, orthotics and biomechanics are the bread and butter of today's Podiatry world. they're the money making bit of Podiatry. At the hospital I'm working musculoskeletal consultation alone costs around £60-120 and these orthotics would normally cost up to £200-600 a pair!! How and why should I mess it up? It's my bread and butter soon.

Talking about the cheat, well, it was because I skipped a step, Which was to put expansions to the positive cast. Which resulted the orthotic material to float on the 1st ray upon inversion to put subtalar joint into neutral. But I could have used forefoot expansion which meant I would have to bevel more and looking at angles etc. Too much work! Then I thought I would try the cheeky way to cheat by heating the ends and press it hard by using hairdryer at home. So I brought it back and tried it. I was pessimistic towards this however as the polypropylene hardly moulded in temperature below 200 deg, let alone the heat from a home hairdryer!! But hey, never say never. It worked! AD the orthotics guru, who is my bestmate couldn't believe it himself. He kept on saying "oh my days!" to his disbelief! On that note, I am happy!

Cheating in the action


The result




To the curious peeps out there, these were made from just plain flat sheets of materials, into what you have just seen above!!

On top of this, the notion that made me proud is that, I did it all by myself with no input from lecturers!

It's actually fun to see people's faces in orthotics. It is always filled with drama! Broken foot casts, things falling apart, tears, fights, accidents... and not to forget, burns! yes I burnt myself before!

The day resembles how I feel.

It's been gloomy and sad in Eastbourne. The weather I mean....
But again, it somehow empathising the way I'm feeling at the moment. Just gloomy and dark. I just wanna sink in my duvet in bed all the time, trying to escape from the idea of datelines entailing me! But I had a remedy to calm me down. Today, albeit the workload and datelines with a snap of my fingers, I took the long journey home from uni. I took the seafront way as I had my camera with me. I took pictures of gloomy Eastbourne. So here we are...

The Pier from a far.

Wishing an identical clone!

I know that I'm slacking with the updates, and as the title says, I wish I could just clone myself as many as I could to multi-task. I have so much to do in so little time within my capabilities. I have been on placements all over the Southeast and tons of essays for the portfolio to be handed in before x'mas! Placement wise, it has been great experience so far although there were few hiccups along the way. But put that aside, and I loved the experience at Epsom for Podiatric Surgery placement with Dr Pabari. It was an excellent opportunity. Rheumatology was not bad either and really learnt alot. And tomorrow, I'm off to King's College Hospital in London for Diabetes placement. Gosh, there goes the money on tickets...

Currently, I'm struggling to finish a pair of orthotics to be issued to a patient in 2 weeks. I've been working on it for 4 weeks now! It's very hard. I've been wasting so much expensive materials just to get it right. I tend to be good in orthotics, but it'sn just not my cuppa tea! Especially these casted ones! And I have 2 more pairs to do! Arrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




On a fair share of the story, I've had good times too, although not as much as I used to. For the last few weeks, I've been to a halloween party, a Malaysian do at Sussex Uni, and a meal get together with the pod-mates. So, let's just share that... shall we?

The Halloween party:

It was held in conjunction with my housemate's birthday party and which was a halloween theme. I dressed as a psycho-surgeon, but in the end it ended up more like a Dr rather than a surgeon. Oh well... We also had Malaysian friend, Haslina and family who came over to our little crib and just to see what it's like during this so called crazy horrible halloween. ehehe. Later that night, we went out to the club nearby which was fairly new - BassMent. It was alright, but personally I still prefer Atlantis as they have bigger floor space. But anyhow, we enjoyed ourselves that night.










Malaysian Do:

It was held on the following Sunday after the Halloween party. It was a great experience too as I hadn't had the chance to meet fellow Malays here for the last 2 years I've been here. But there it goes, and that was like a "Raya" for me although it was belated and few days after Syawal. And I stuffed myself with excellent foods!! Picture this - lemang, rendang, and nasi ayam!!! What else more could I ask for! Besides, I had the chance to appreciate and hear the differences about the Malaysian scholarship and student arrangements to that for Bruneians.




The meal get-together:

Shahin had organised a get together amongst us pod-mates. So we decided to try out this new Indian restaurant. It was good, and it was less than £10 per person for all you can eat buffet. Food was great, people were fun to be with and the night was just amazing! And we ended the night the Greek way by breaking a plate for good luck. Anastacia went to ask the restaurant owner if she could break a plate. Bizzare enough, they let her do it!!!! So we had a plate breaking session in the end.

Bachelor's Satay - My style!

Been craving for satay and brahims was too "chemical-ish" taste to my liking. Well, I can't believe I'm doing this which in the past I never thought of doing, satay sauce from peanut butter!!!

Here it goes. Warning: this is not the original satay recipe. This is purely modified to suit a bachelor's capability.




The chicken satay:
Ingredients:

• Boneless chicken
• Tumeric powder
• Cumin Powder
• Salt
• Sugar

Add everything together and leave to marinade for an hour before deep frying.

The sauce:

• Oil
• Sliced onions
• peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
• Tamarind (replace with either lime or lemon)
• Brown sugar (I used damerara)
• Cumin powder
• Wee bit of corriander powder
• Salt and pepper
• *optional chilli powder / flakes

Brighton, Grey and Mates.

I'm having a few days off from uni as there's society's conference going on at Bournemouth which I declined to go. I've experienced it before, and I don't really see much benefit of going unless I'm a registered practitioner. Simply because, it doesn't really impact my practice as a student. Moreover, information or updates will eventually be informed. Plus, I will have tons of opportunities to go once I'm in the practice soon!!

So, instead, I had a great day yesterday with few mates from uni. Therese picked me up from home and we drove all the way to Brighton Marina to meet the rest. The day was cold and grey! We waited the rest at the carpark and they were late! ahahha Blame Shumba for that. So there were me, Therese, Howard, Wendy and Shumba. 2 couldn't make it for unknown reasons. Whilst waiting we kept ourselves warm in the pub nearby with few drinks rather than waiting outside freezing!

After about an hour of no signs of showing up, we then moved to
for our lunch! They were excellent!!! The pastas were all great, and the dessert... yaww!!! I had fresh warm brownies with ice cream. Didn't take me long to finish them all! price was good too, for 3 course meal it was less than 20quid! good eh!!?

Calamari for starter



My Spaghetti Marinara (Main)



and... Dessert



After lunch, we had coffee at Wendy's. Had a good time with Henry the cat. He's such a lovely and lucky cat!! He's the first cat ever to have sat on my lap, and got pat and stroking from me! He's such a therapeutic cat, and he's 18 years old? Such a lovely one I must say. It's owned by Wendy's mate, Marie.

All and all, it was a great day as a final year student so far!