Left, not right!

These past few days, something bothered me.

Whenever I took pictures of my niece using the digicam, they turned out fuzzy. True enough, she moved half the time, but that didn't account for the other half of the fuzzy pictures.

Which only meant one thing : My hands are not steady enough.

Now, that's DEFINITELY what a 22 year-old person wants to think of herself. What more a medical student. The pathway to being a surgeon suddenly becomes dim...

Then I realized something : I am left-handed. I take pictures with my right hand, like all normal right-handed people do. After using my left hand to take the pictures (don't ask me how, I just did it) the pictures were of better quality.

It's hard you know, having an attribute shared only among 10% of the world's population. And out there, it's a world made for the majority - the right-handed people. It's even worse than gender discrimination. At an early age, I discovered using scissors with my left hand is futile, writing with pencil (Primary 1 to 3) resulted in smudges on the side of my palm that was in contact with the paper. Fountain pens were my worst enemies. Not only they caused smudges, because of the angle I held the pen (to prevent further smudges), the ink wouldn't flow. When I started cooking, even the wooden spatula was shaped to make things difficult for me.

So I tried to adapt myself. Doing things with my right hand. And the outcome is not bad at all. I can now use a knife with both hands, write with either (although my right is slower). I can play musical instruments designed for right-handers. Though my left hand is still dominant, I can do things with my right fairly well. Which sometimes make me forget that I'm a leftie in the first place, resulting in episodes such as the picture-taking.

New mantra to repeat to self : Left, not right!

Found some interesting facts on left-handedness (excerpt taken from a website):

"In the category of art, both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were left handed. In the category of music, Ludwig van Beethoven was left handed. In the field of science and invention, you find Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. In the field of motion pictures, Charlie Chaplin. Bobby Fisher, the modern chess genius, is left handed. So too musical geniuses Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Wynton Marsalis.
Each of the these persons had a mind so exceptional as to be head and shoulders above anyone else in their field. So even though it may be more difficult for a left handed person to live in a right handed world, lefties can know that they are in good company. Beethoven and Einstein had it tough, too".

Baby Blues

On Tuesday, 22nd of March 2004, at precisely 1.53 a.m, Azureen Sofia bt. Onny Iriawan was born.

Now, more than one week later, it is evident that life is definitely not the same ever since she was born:

1) The house has adopted a 'No-noise' policy. Especially when the little miss is sleeping.

2) When she cries, everyone would drop whatever he/she was doing to rush to her aid

3) My parents have learned a new language : Baby talk

4) Everyone in the household call him/herself as how he/she would address him/herself to the baby: Abah calls himself 'Atuk', Mak calls herself 'Wan' - although she's still considering other options - I call myself 'Mak Ngah', a title that I've been averting for so long (I have loads of nieces & nephews, children of my cousins) and yet now I'm using it with such pride.

5) Everytime we go downstairs, regardless of our intended destination (e.g. the kitchen), we would stop by the baby's cot placed at the dining hall during the day. A few minutes are spent making weird faces and noises to the baby's and other people's amusement. The same applies if we were to go upstairs.

6) Phone conversations revolve around the baby. My mom would call me just to ask if she (Azureen) has eaten or not. No mention about the recipient of the call. (Once, I said over the phone: "Yes, I'm fine too!!" after my mom had disconnected the call).

For someone who's been around only for a short time, she sure rules the household. And she turned our lives upside down. But then, when I hold her in my arms and she gives that adorable little yawn, I thought of how empty life would be if she wasn't around. It's a different feeling...I love children, but knowing she's of my own blood makes me adore her more.

Our family has taken the first step towards completion. Wonder if I can persuade my sister for more additions to the family (hahahah!)

A very short update...

It's been a while.

Sorry.

Sister gave birth last week.

My niece is SO CUTE!!! (The adorable-est baby ever!!!)

Newsflash : I know how to change diapers now.

World, here I come.

Green green grass of home....

It's been a while....

News of the week : I'M HOME!!

Feels so good to be back. Reached home yesterday, felt SO tired. Slept almost throughout the whole journey, transit in Singapore, even slept while waiting to board the plane. Journey was ok, one good thing about SIA is that they had on-demand entertainment so had quite a wide variety of movies + songs to watch. Saw 'Shall We Dance?' and 'Peter Pan' and half of 'Meet Me in St Louis' - one of my favourite classic movies - and 'A Very Long Engagement'; which, was very long, so I fell asleep.

Saw my eldest sister when I reached home, and she was/is VERY pregnant. The little one better decide to see the world when her aunt's here. My sis + bro-in-law showed me the things they bought for the baby. Her wardrobe's more extensive than mine (not that it's much of a competition). Everyone's very excited.

Trying to convince my youngest sister to watch Naruto. She's not exactly very impressed with my current obsession of the opening + ending songs of Naruto. She said that I don't even understand what the songs are about, which was a fair enough statement. The translation of the songs are quite bad, their English make me cringe sometimes. BUT that doesn't deter me from watching it.

Am currently typing this while listening to McFly's 'All About You'. Heard it for the first time over the radio (Heart 106.2) when a radio caller requested for it. It's nothing posh, the lyrics is not one to make you contemplate the meaning of life if I say so myself, but the simplicity of the song makes it so endearing. The kind that makes you want to sing along and dance around to it.

Haven't heard a song that would make me smile so easily for quite a while, which is why this song makes me think of someone, who has the same effect on me, only much stronger *winks*

To that person out there, this song is for you. Please know I'm always thinking of you...

All About You by McFly

It's all about you (It's all about you)

It's all about you baby

It's all about you (It's all about you)

It's all about you

Yesterday you asked me something I thought you knew

So I told you with a smile, it's all about you

Then you whispered in my ear and you told me too

Said you'd make my life worthwhile, it's all about you

Chorus:

And I would answer all of your wishes

If you ask me to

But if you deny me one of your kisses

Don't know what I'd do

So hold me close and say three words like you used to do

Dancing on the kitchen tiles, it's all about you (yeah!)

Chorus 2:

And I would answer all of your wishes

If you ask me to
But if you deny me one of your kisses

Don't know what I'd do

So hold me close and say three words like you used to do
Dancing on the kitchen tiles

Yes you make my life worthwhile

So I told you with a smile

It's all about you

It's all about you (it's all about you)

It's all about you baby

(repeat until end)

Hospital attachment : Episode 2; Patient cannulation : Part deux

Started the 2nd clinical attachment last Monday. God is kind, I'm attached to the hospital just 2 minutes' away (the student accommodation is just behind the hospital). So it's just rolling out of bed and walk to the hospital for me.

Doing surgical rotation now. Before I met my consultant on Tuesday, I was quite nervous. Reports had it that he has quite a temper, and loves to ask anatomy questions (as all surgeons do). Since my med school seems to think that its students would take their own initiative to study anatomy - they don't emphasize it in the curriculum, yet expect us to know it - I was understandably nervous, enough to actually dust my anatomy textbooks and read a thing or two. Talk abt negative reinforcement!

However, when I met the consultant on Tuesday, I though that he's quite one of the jolliest persons I know. With a cynical sense of humour added to his personality (now, THAT's the kind of humour I recognize!). He's undoubtedly busy, I expect him to be running from one hospital to the other doing surgeries, so my firm mates and I will be with the rest of the team members most of the time. Looks like it's going to be quite a relaxed firm, which is a welcomed change, I really need to do some studying (have started thinking abt 3rd year finals, which is unusual for me at this time of the year, must be one of the oddities just like London's weather and the tsunami that just happened; or perhaps, miraculously, I've come to my senses)

Had to cannulate a patient yesterday. My second time. Thankfully enough, my hands were not shaking as much as the first time. Got it at the first attempt. I remember my first time experience. Had to cannulate a confused elderly lady at the A&E, God bless her. She was quite confused and a bit distressed for being admitted, but was really nice abt me attending to her. My hands literally shook, and it didn't help when blood started pouring out before I could attach the bung to the venflon, and blood started messing the floor. Between the lady and myself, she was the braver one, by far. She moaned a bit when I had to prick her skin, and kept asking if it was over. I kept saying "A little bit more, you're doing very well...". I think I was saying that to myself more than to her actually. I REALLY needed the encouragement. And when I was done, I told her "Well done, you did excellent!".

That statement was definitely directed at myself. You can't imagine my exultation at the time!

Anyway, the main thing is : NEVER panic. Always stay calm. The minute you start showing signs of distress, the patient will be doubly so.

Looking forward to next week...Will be going home for the Easter holidays! Can't wait to see everyone at home! It's been just too long....(well actually, the last time I went back was last Christmas holidays....so much of trying to be an independent young adult).

Me and my (none existent) letter-writing skills...(Melayu oh melayu..)

With London games drawing nearer, I had to draft a letter to invite the director of MSD to come for the event. When I was assigned the task, I thought 'kacang je nih...' since I'm not alien to secretarial work. However, when I sat down at my computer then I remembered that ALL surat rasmi(s) have to be written in Malay. I froze. Literally. Oh darn...

You see, although I can assure you that I'm 100% Melayu, I eat belacan and cencalok and I love tempoyak like no one has loved it before and I know how petai and kerdas and jering look like, my written Malay is, well, not as good as it should be. Despite the fact that my mom is a Malay Language teacher (sorry, mak!).

I remember when I was in F5 in school. I was the only Malay girl in a sea of Chinese and Indian girls in my class (the rest of the Malay girls had gone off to boarding schools, and left me to fend for myself). Alhamdulillah, I held my own in many things, except for Malay Language, my own native tongue. Those girls, with their Malay tuitions and their Dewan Masyarakat and Dewan Siswa left me trailing miles behind when it came to written Malay. They astounded me with their bombastic Malay phrases, while I amused them with my half-cooked Negeri Sembilan accent (no prizes for guessing who the winners are and who the joker is).

It is not an unusual phenomenon; non-Malay students being much better than Malay students when it comes to the Malay Language subject in school. Being my mom's unofficial secretary, I frequently had to type out good compositions written by her students to be used as model essays, and 9 out of 10 of them would've been written by a non-Malay. It's quite tragic, I must say. But I suppose that us Malays have been speaking the language since birth, and the use of colloquial Malay so ingrained in us that the thought and the act of using the language in its proper form seems difficult. After all, it is a greater challenge to unlearn things than learn them for the first time, as in the case of non-Malays, since their largest exposure to Bahasa Melayu would've been from school (I know there are exceptions; it's just a generalized statement, don't argue with me on this one).

So back to the letter I had to write. What did I do? Well, I took a deep breath, loosened my fingers, and with a big wince I steadfastly typed the letter, not stopping even for a minute (except during those times when I had to crack my head for the appropriate word/phrase to write). Once it was done, I saved the file, and emailed it to the appropriate recipient for further action.

After half an hour, my blood pressure and pulse went back to normal. My acute attack of migraine (started at the beginning of the letter-writing) went away as mysteriously as when it came.

THAT is one experience I do not wish to repeat in the near future.