Money Matters.

I hate money matters.
Its what makes people snap at each other, heck about manners, forget about life philosophies.

I wish I had loads and loads and loads of cash.
And someone to do accounts for me.

Symptoms dont lie.

I randomly caught House on AXN 4 days ago. About 3 minutes ago, I just completed House Season 4. And I'm annoyed because Season 5 isnt out yet.

This is like being pregnant. It's so painful waiting, and you just hope it'll come out NOW.
And yes, preggies are allowed to be unreasonable.

I count my blessings.

Because I dont have that many pictures to brighten up my post, I shall try to keep it short. But I still want to yak cos I havent been so glad for such a long time.

Since everyone is finally back home for summer/ back from hols in exotic places, I finally managed to meet up with people whom Ive wanted to see since forever.

Friday
Met up with Mon, and it hasnt changed one bit. We sat in Crystal Jade complaining about inflation, ERPs, the escape of Mas Salamat and Stef (of course). Which was really un-politically correct, whining about government policies and the government scholar.
We watched Batman- The Dark Knight, but I preferred Red Cliff. CG effects and acting was superb, but it was a rather typical A-Class Hollywood film. I guess it has to do with expectations- I expected Dark Knight to be kickass good, but it was only very good. I thought Red Cliff would be un-understandably arty farty, but it was artistic, beautiful and exciting. So my votes goes to the latter. Hopefully, this will be the start of good chinese blockbusters.

Saturday
Went for SNF, a forum on social entrepreneurship (http://www.ukssc.org/snf2008.html). It was thought provoking. I was impressed, and enjoyed myself (and the freebies) loads. Really, I think maybe there should be more avenues for us randomers who want to do something to get funds for our ideas. But, I shall keep my comments to myself, lest I end up like WeeShuMin.

Met up with SnR and the RGSRCY people in the evening.
And it was lovely. Everyone's still as wacky and its still just as fun, though we have gone on to do very different things. But seems like everyone is doing rather well (:
I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that this will continue. I cant waaitt to come home, so please (esp the local medics), DONT FORGET ME!


I only wished I brought my cam out yesterday.

Red Cliff.

Subconsciously I think I placed the pictures of the male stars in order of how much I like them.
It's embarrassing really.

He was so charming that he gave me goosebumps. God really has created a masterpiece in this case.
His acting was awesome, and I totally loved his portrayal of Zhuge Liang.

As expected, he was charming and his acting unrivalled. Though it surprised me that I walked out of the cinema loving Zhuge Liang more.
But, Im still a bigger fan of Tony Leung, and Im looking forward to Part II which I believe would have more of him.

Hu Jun was stunning. I love that air of dignity and confidence he displayed this time. More refined and beautifully played than his role in 天龙八部.

I have to give it all to John Woo for making such a beautiful movie.
Its been quite some time since such a wonderful chinese blockbuster was produced.
LOADS better that 卧虎藏龙 in my opinion, though I would have loved Ziyi Zhang (as much as i dont like her) over Chilin Lin.

Spirit of Enterprise Awards 2008

To show my support for Beano, here's what she has been up to:

http://sgentrepreneurs.com/news-stop/2008/07/16/online-public-voting-open-for-spirit-of-enterprise-awards-2008/

So if you have some time to spare, please do visit this site and cast your vote!

Of UCL Med School.

Disclaimer: I dont mean to insult anyone/ any party or school in any way!

If there was anything that I managed to get from ytd's AH hospital tour, it was that now, I'm convinced by Eejean that we medics in UCL got the better end of the deal. She has managed to convince me that we have more fun while not learning significantly lesser than the NUS kids (albeit at a higher price), that our education has breadth and aint that bad after all, and is possibly better than Imperial.
And this has made me quite less reluctant to return to london (:
Plus, we were assured that we would have jobs waiting for us back in Singapore when we come back since there would be the opening of 2 new hospitals. Which is good, if they dont mean jobs as in keeping us as MOs forever. But things are gonna change by the time we are back in 2013 (or possibly later).


Meanwhile, the team heading for PKK 08 seems really fun, and Im looking forward to the trip (: And getting a tan, and busting mozzies in Khon Kaen. OH, and eating all those thai food!

Wish us luck, and if you have any of the following to donate, please contact me:
1. Old Clothes
2. Old toys
3. Recorders
4. Old children books
5. Stationery/ anything you think might be relevant for villagers in a not too poor village (but not well to do either)
6. Cash.

Khon Kaen and a glimpse into village life.

When I first got to Khon Kaen I never expected myself to love this place this much. It's a dusty box of a town, with Khon Kaen Uni taking up most of it. Its almost like a less developed area of Malaysia. But of course, as with the cliched saying, I love that place because of the people and our hosts (Public Health Faculty International Club students) were realllyyy friendly. Its been a long time since I have met people who so genuinely friendly and glad to have us. Even though communication was quite a problem (as stef described, getting a pt across to them is like leading a whole day of cheer). Thai food rocked, though there was alot of pork in them (and if you know me, you would know i generally dont like red meat). But dishes like papaya salad, mango sticky rice, thai desserts consisting of red ruby and cute fat chendol worms, pad thai, thai green curry, saku, cha yan (thai iced tea) blah blah. The list goes on forever.

Visiting the village was amazing, and it made me want to be a farmer :P Having been a city kid for so long, its nice to know of such an alternative lifestyle. Though I dont think I can survive staying there forever but now I'm really looking forward to going down there, and staying with these people and getting to know them and their culture better. If only UCL offered thai as a language which I can take as SSC. And im crossing my fingers and hoping that this project would take off as a sustainable project. Although Im sick of stef, Im glad she is my partner 'cos I dont think She's like a partner and mentor in one. I really do understand why she managed to get the award.

Here's a little glimpse into their village life and what I did in Khon Kaen.
Basically it was a recce trip for Project Khon Kaen 08. We visited villages, the local Primary Care Unit (PCU) and for R&R, we had Tor, who was a friend of stef's thai friend, who brought us around. We went for thai karaoke (and me and stef sang disney songs in there), cycled around a lake in KK city, visited temple, tried loads of thai food, and bought back Pork Floss which apparently originated from Khon Kaen.

Bikes were the most common form of transport in KK. Even within the KK Uni.

Refuelling with gas from a bottle. How primitive and cute.

Here comes the cowherd. I didnt know there are still people who did this now!

Farming! Its the planting season now :)

Padi fields were so gorgeous!

My thai host, Lake, playing with a stray dog. In thailand, the number of stray dogs beats the number of stray cats in Singapore hands down. And they come in all shapes and sizes and breeds and gender. From Poodles to German Shepherds to fluffy ones like this.

The KKU Night bazaar. Which had LOADS of good food. The Tom Yum Taley (Seafood Tom Yum) here was out of this world. 11 thumbs up.

Stef and Saku. Which is abit like soon-kueh shaped snacks made of sago skin with peanut and garlic stuff inside. REAL GOOD.

Stef and Rice Crackers.

Jaime, Me, Rung and Stef posing with a dino bin.

Tor, Jaime, Me, Rung, Stef.

Typical Eatery in KKU. We totally hecked about hygiene during that trip and miraculously didny get diarrhoea or food poisoning.

Thai food. With pork done in different ways.

One of the more majestic temples in KK. Though not as stunning as those build by the royal family in BKK, it was still beautiful .

Bells put up by worshippers for good luck.

Buddhists believe that the 5-headed snake protected the Buddha during his meditation when the Satan sent the floods. Hence these snakes are seen in most temples.

A view of the lake which we cycled around from the temple.

Rung and I.

KKU Hospital. Opened by one of the princesses. Basically in thailand, most hospitals and temples are built by the royal family. And the King's picture is really everywhere.

Bangkok!

I just came back from thailand where I went to Bangkok for 1 day and Khon Kaen for about 4days to do a recce trip for this CIP trip which I would be doing there.
Anyway, since blogger takes forever to load photos, here's some of the photos which I took in Bangkok, where I spent 1 whole day visiting about 10 temples, with Rung as my local guide.

My 2 thai friends showing that they really love Bangkok. And they also really love their king. Sometimes I wonder if it is possible for Singaporeans to love any of our leaders like that. Maybe I would, if Ben Sheares is still alive. Ong Teng Chiong's pretty charming too. Stef and myself in front of a touristy sign.
Bells symbolize luck according to my thai friends.
Pasting gold on the Buddha.
In the tuk-tuk. After having a go on it, now i do understand why thailand has so many road kills.

At one of the most famous temples in Bangkok, Royal Palace (or smthing along those lines).
Little Giants. They are everywhere. And they guard the temples, according to the thais.

The swing.

The fast boat, the travels along the river. Costs about 16 BHT for a trip. The slow one, which travels across the river, costs only 4BHT.

One of my favourite temples, and those steps are as steep as the length of my shin.

The Reclining Buddha. So majestic it really took my breath away.

Western Influence?
Monk feeding pigeon. In thailand, the monks are really revered. And when a female (accidentally or not) touches a monk, he cant be a monk anymore. So on the streets, when we see a monk, we try to step aside to let him pass.
Tuk-tuk. They should call it 吐吐. Really can puke after the ride and puke blood too.
Cha- Yan. Also known as thai iced- tea. Potentially diabetes causing but my favourite drink there.