Hello Perth! Including Soundwave Festival 2010 Gig List

[caption id="attachment_1172" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Click for more of the lineup!"][/caption]

Leaving on 24th Feb for the uberlong trans-earth flight to Perth from London!

I cannot wait for the Soundwave festival, fab weather, and meeting up with Clement and friends, my folks, and my sis, all in one place!  Who would've thought pensioner-Perth would be such a happening place?

When did I last see my boyfriend?  November!  Bloody hell.  We win you hands down.

Also getting to meet up with Jonus (Bonus!) and hopefully a couple of track & field mates from the early glory days. Hur hur hur.

[caption id="attachment_1173" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The gig list thus far - essential planning for the day's runabouts"][/caption]

We're also going to see Russell Peters, celebrate Clem + my birthdays, and possibly meet baby Alesha (Lovingly produced by Sham & Anne)!  :D

Then a little road trip to Margaret River and the places between...

Hurray!  What to pack what to pack?

Supei in Shanghai, Peishan in Singapore

[caption id="attachment_1160" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Krispy Kreme after some Singapore Curry and Baguettes (Thanks, Prima!)"][/caption]

Oh how I miss my London pals, my East London partner (Peishan!) and the random warehouse parties.

Supei's fashion designing in Shanghai, where facebook is banned (WTF) and Peishan librarianing in Singapore where a heck of alot of other stuff is banned.  Like bubblegum and gayness.  Nevermind.  See you guys soon somehow!

Pics from the Annual Hospital Ball!

I'm bloomin' pissed off because I blogged this, the bullshit mobile broadband dongle connection dropped, and somehow WP couldn't autosave cos the connection was too slow to start off with.  *stringofwearwords*!  Dongle, what a stupid word.

Anyway here are some pics from the Annual Queen Alexandra Hospital ball, end of January, minus the running commentary, because I cannot be bothered and I don't think it's of any consequence.  I went after my on-call, felt like just collapsing in bed but put on some heels and a grungy dress made by the awesome girl/artist/dressmaker behind I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.  Topped off with a handmade fascinator too, made by said girl.  For the life of me I cannot remember her name, but she's an awesome lady with the best tattoo on her scalp and a blue mohawk.

[caption id="attachment_1138" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Connaught House Bunch plus Gstringboy"][/caption]

It was a typical ball, where you need to be adequetely bladdered to enjoy the mediocre music and shit DJing.  Live band was good, however, why would a band do just covers?  I suspect they were moonlighting to raise money for their actual band, because they looked indie-ish.

[caption id="attachment_1139" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Lining our stomach with pizza in a glamourous way (ie. not smudging the lipstick)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1151" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Cute dress isn't it? That's Shikha and together we're the Charminisers! Her voice is fab and we harmonise fantastically."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1140" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Me with Kitkat, my all-time favourite neighbour and anglo-asian pal"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1146" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Boobtastic! (Except me, hahaha!)"][/caption]

I'm so awesomely glad I'm living in the same (broadbandless) building as these three.  Breakfast clubs, cake baking, cinema trips...just missing Naureen in the pic, yes you!  And Prativa of course, who is in possession of a hoard of other pics from the night.

[caption id="attachment_1147" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Abi is way too tall and her picture-taking makes me look like a midget! "][/caption]

This ball malarky only works if you're adequately bladdered, just like alot of social events in the UK.  Therefore there was alot of chundering and passed out people on the steps leading out the driveway.  I'm so glad I've had my years of experimentation to work out my ETOH limits.  The karma paid from the comatose nights being rescued from toilets.  Makes for a classy exit.  Who knew good could come out of all that? Hahaha!

Night shift shennanigans

As some of you may (not) know, I'm doing my acute medicine rotation as part of my 2-year internal medicine core training.  This means the temporary shitty shifts, and the struggle for survival of 13 hour back to back on-calls for 7 days in a row.  3 days then 4 nights, a weekend off, and a string of 13 hour on-call days.

[caption id="attachment_1165" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="One of the lucky times we got to snooze in the Mess. So cute!"][/caption]

Night shifts are unpredictable, so you can have no-one to see, or all of a sudden 6 people waiting to be seen and sorted.  You may have 1 really ill one, or 6 crap admissions.  Or people going off everywhere.  Up to you to prioritise, and young(er) docs tend to be perfectionist and want to see and sort everything before going on their breaks.  Bad idea.  You'll find it's 8am in the morning before you've had a pee.

*Tip: know what can wait and what can't.

[caption id="attachment_1166" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="So knackered we fell asleep despite Family Guy on TV"][/caption]

I hate that part of the rota, but the trade-off is off-days on weekdays and 2 week holiday blocks.  Woo hoo!

The other good thing about nights is not having to deal with administrative bollocks.  And it being simpler to prioritise what can wait and what cannot wait based simply on the fact that your consultants are asleep, and no, you cannot do an MRI in the middle of the night, and no, there are no surgeons to deal with un-sensational abdomens. (ie. not about to rupture any minute)

[caption id="attachment_1168" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="You must be thinking what a nice life we have, but I don't take the camera out when we're life-saving..."][/caption]

Goodbye for now!  Next shift after the weekend:  Mon-fri 13-hour on-call days.

Vivienne Westwood + Melissa Shoes

It looks so much better on my feet.

Shoes!  I am heading out today to try them out (again!) and possibly get them.  Woo hoo!  Cute VW shoes for £70, to slosh around in the mud with and not have to be dainty with.  Yay to rubber haha.

Still need to take pics of my thigh high Stuart Weitzman boots!

A Systematic approach to interpreting and reporting Chest Radiographs

Some med students were lucky enough to have had awesome teaching in reporting chest radiographs. (I fondly remember taking my lunch hour to attend a small tutorial, kindly held by this 90 year old radiologist, very experienced, and incredibly dedicated in teaching and making us see the light(box))

We were such aweful skiving med students; this class was anything from 1-6 pax large! I thank Alex and Kathy (What country have they NOT been to?!) for organising these awesome sessions for us, and I wish I remembered her name that lovely lady, who knew we wouldn't listen unless she was harsh with us.

Now just moogling and found a great secret source which runs this through pretty concisely. Ok it wasn't so secret, but it made you click! Follow it and you will not miss a sign. Perservere for lateral CXR interpretations too, it's initially mind bending, but a dying trade.

The Long Hair Clinic! Tips on growing your hair

Why have all my blogposts become so instructional now?  As if I know better!  But guess what, this is privy information gleaned from my £40 consultation and long hair micro-trim.  So I'll share this with all you people who are trying to grow hair!  It's hardly a matter of just letting it grow, it's bloody hard work!  Especially for me where I have like 1 million follicles per square cm of scalp.  No care = bush hair.

Current hair length and cam-whore opportunity

I was the mushroom head, poofy haywire hair, felt bloody odd growing up in Singapore where everyone had silky smooth flat hair, and on top of that the look of the season was to rebond.  So I went for a spikey short crop.  And then dragon ball hair.  And then dreadlocks.

Who gave a shit about my hair, they can be natty for all I care.

Hair length reference: Christmas 2007


Then I got wise, and now I love my big hair.  But still had a cave-woman approach to growing long hair.

Pre-consultation hair regime: Never had own hair colour since I was 14 and found peroxide in Guardian Pharmacy.  Never combed my hair.  Ever.  2000w hot hairdryer after every hairwash.  Constantly tie hair with elasticband.  Invested in a hair straighter and curling tong.  Went for trendy haircuts with razor slicing.  No wonder my hair strands decided to rebel, multiply (split!!) and poke me in the eye!

I know it's not that long, but one has to start somewhere!

So I got severely irate one day with my split ends, and wanted a trim yet didn't want to put myself in the hands on a "stylist" who'll just prey on my locks and try to style it, with their fancy razors and jagged cuts.  Instant split ends!

What a contradiction.  I need a haircut.  But want to grow my hair.

I did my research...(point 8 on previous post!)

On Timeout London's list of best hairdressers was Neil Ward, Long hair specialist of Patrick Ludde Salon, Mayfair, London.

I'd finally plucked up enough courage to attend!  (cancelled on them once before, after many phonecalls asking them what exactly they'll do, will they cut my hair short? how much will they cut off?  What does the consultation entail?  Can I come for a consultation and then decide not to cut my hair (yes!) etc etc.  Bloody paranoia!)
Hair reference: Future aim!
Neil was awesome, he used Dr George Michael's Philosophy,  cut out the fluffy hairdresser talk, and gave me the scientific stuff about hair.

And I thank that George Michael guy who studied medicine and then decided to dedicate his life to the science of hair.  Abit dubious, but nonetheless, someone has to do it!  At least he put his fetish to good use, hahaha!

One length blunt cut - the healthiest style, to minimise hair fallout

I spent 1.5 hours at the salon learning about hair, how to care, how to wash, how it grows and how to protect it.  Neil spent that time taking small sections of my hair, twisting it, and snipping off the sticking-out split-ends in micro-millimeter lengths.  Then he did a half inch trim of the ends to level the back.  If you're growing your hair, it has to be the same length.  If not you get wierd shedding patterns, and you risk slowing down hair growth from eg. having a fringe (as your hair tries to balance it's overall length.  wow, clever hair ).

Backview of my hair and my messy room.

He did take me to the full length mirror and was really sensitive about us hair gardeners and our fear of cutting off too much hair...told me exactly how much he was going to take off, and then back to the chair.

"Long hair...it should be heaven to live with and not hell to look after." George Michael (NOT the singer, although it could be quite good lyrics)

Salient points from the consultation:

• Wet hair, condition the ends BEFORE shampooing -check!
• bend over while washing your hair -check!
• cold wash after conditioning.  Bending over means you don't get cold water all over your bod -check!
• blow dry with not more than 45 degrees of heat -check!
• 2 monthly hair micro-trims (will probably make that 4-6monthly)
• no elastic bands!  Use the top of a pop-sock (the top elasticated bit of ankle-length tights) to tie if you have to.  He also taught me how to tie my hair with my own hair.  Nifty!
• brush your hair 100 freakin times every morning with a £120 natural brush ( not fulfilled.)

Hand drawn natural bristles on a wooden brush. One brushmaker makes 3 of these a day!

Go through all the extensive tips here!

Meanwhile I'm enjoying this whole long hair thing, so check back in a couple of months for longer hair!  Do share your hair care tips and tricks if you have any up your follicles :)

P.s. I swear if i were living in hot humid dragon's-breath Singapore, I would've given up long ago.  Happy Chinese New Year everyone!  Oh and St. Valentine's day.  (Great deadline for slacker relationship people to get their acts together)

P.p.s  I think I've done very well in using pics as spacers here!

P.p.p.s  Haha just trying to piss you off.  Bye!  Hope you enjoyed the post whether you're growing hair or not.