My foot

Literally that was exactly what I would like to say yesterday except that the irony of the whole situation made it unsuitable.

I strained my right foot ligament. Even the doctor who gave me such diagnosis looked doubtful but by the given history of no trauma, no insect bite/sting, no nothing happened there directly…

Let me go through again… on Friday night around 9 pm (God forbid I do this again till I graduate) I returned to the Medical ward in QEH to copy a case note of a patient for my case presentation due on Tuesday (since I rather not waste petrol and time to come back again on weekends). Upon entrance, my senior who was a houseman there greeted me with a relieved exclamation and straight away ushered me to help him with the new admissions. So there I was, a student, doing a houseman job of clerking and blood taking and filling forms then later blood C&S plus informing the weary nurses that this patient need this and that patient need that and so forth and later to be informed that the ward run out of blankets thanks to the 14 new admissions within 3 hours. Not to mention that the floor is covered by folding beds and a suspected pneumonia/TB patient was wedged in between others.

So by the time I left it was 2.30 am… reach college by 3 am to be let in by the sympathetic guard… drop off to bed with sore feet by 4 am. Then I woke up at 9 am with excruciating pain in my right foot which made standing and walking as something to be done only when necessary. And so I was off to the collage clinic where the doctor was baffled by what that seemed like a torn / strained ligament in sports injury turned out to be a non – traumatic one. Mind you I was wearing flat shoes.

God I can’t imagine how it is after I graduate later… I think I should consider Tawau Hospital instead now…

UMS & convocation... My day

Today I went to my seniors’ convocation, which was after contemplating for so long whether I should dress in jeans or baju kurung. And of the jam. And of parking space and ease.

To begin with, the Tamu Gadang kick started the whole convo event. Which also kick started my hell of driving back to hostel with all the traffic of outsiders and office workers clogging up the campus road. And so I rather stayed in the ward till 6 pm daily for the whole week than drive through the congested round – a - bout. There was nothing much about the whole Tamu Gadang event, expensive food, mess, noise… OK, so some AF artists came.

Then the convo started. More jam.

Anyway, my seniors’ convo day. The day they officially became real doctors. Literally since technically they were already doctors since they started working 2 weeks prior.

My God, I’ve never seen so many people congested in one space. And the heat. And the sudden downpour. And the long hours of the session.

I thank God that I chose to wear jeans as all the stairs climbing and chasing after our seniors to gave their congratulatory bouquets would be hazardous with baju kurung.

I don’t think I’ll come to my own convo until dragged kicking and screaming by my parents who paid for my school fees these 5 years. All the long hours, RM150 fees and registration, jam, crowd… I rather sleep in on the day – off that I’ll apply for my convo…

Western Food: New York New York

Status: Serve no pork / lard (The menu said so)

CAUTION: COOKING MAY CONTAINS ALCOHOL

Venue/landmark: 1Borneo, 1st floor

Time open – close:breakfast (9.00 am) - dinner (9.00 pm)

Reservation:

Contact no.:

Basic RM per meal: RM 20.00 (starting pay, w/o tax)

I love this place!!!

To start with, I love the deco with their comfortable sofas, chic dining wares and the half – round table with sofa seats in their respective “cave”. The colours are vibrant, with cheery music and friendly waiters/resses… I have very little to complain.

And cool menu! Literally and technically. It’s printed in magazine style, glossy paper and all, with tantalizing pics of the best they have to offer and is just plain cool! The list of goodies made us all drool and pore with such sweet agony that the waiter had to be sent away as we took our sweet time deciding. The list of dessert and chocolate beverages will send you wild and reconsider your earlier main course. They also had this small print next to each item e.g. diet friendly, sinful, daboom! And so forth to guide your pick. Vegetarians alike would find the menu to their liking (and will never regret their decision of becoming one) as there are many vegetarian entrees which even we non-vegan agreed as palatable. The pricing of each item is pretty much acceptable, Secret Recipe price standard.

By the way, small eaters beware! Some entrée really come in large portion such as the pastas and meat.

I just love their…

1. Fisherman’s clam chowder

Oh my God… generous amount of succulent clams in this creamy soup is sure to drive anyone wild. Too bad it does not come with garlic bread which is a separate entrée (evil!).


2. Mo’ mushroom

Mushrooms and more mushrooms! I love this vegetarian sandwich! The sautéed mushrooms and onions… the melted cheese… And wholemeal bread has never tasted better toasted. Suitable for small eater and those who wants to compensate for dessert (like me ^_^).


3. Mushroom Medley Pizza

Another vegetarian entrée generously topped with all sorts of mushrooms and cheese… heavenly!


4. Spaghetti Bolognese with Giant Meatballs

Giant indeed! I felt like I’ve just eaten a week worth of meat after I finished this one. Juicy, giant meatballs… heaps of sauce…

Sprinkle the cheese powder sparingly as the sauce tends to be salty sometimes.


Then there are others, I forgot to note down the exact name of each entrée:
- Under the soup section: the (5 fat) mussels in tomato based soup is worth a try though some may find it a tad bland. Cheese powder helps.

- Dessert: the deep fried Mars bar with ice cream of your choice and chocolate sauce… The melted Mars caramel oozing as you chew is just… To be eaten hot. Diet UNFRIENDLY but just plain LOVELY!

- Pasta section: Vegetarian lasagna. Bye bye Moo… Hello Tabasco. Dig in!

-Drinks: caramel hot chocolate, served with generous dollop of cream and colorful marshmallows… Thick, sweet, creamy… Lovely! Soak your marshmallows and stir the cream a little for the rapture. Green Apple Cooler is pretty nice and fizzy, pretty to look at. Lovers’ sunset… I agree with the sunset but where are the lovers? Not bad anyway. Lemonade… a tad too sweet.

To sum it up, I love this place!!!!

Variety: Grace Point

CAUTION: SERVES ALCOHOL / COOKING MAY CONTAINS ALCOHOL

Status: Serve no pork

Venue/landmark: Sembulan. This map is a bit lacking in detail. So let say you’re coming from the direction of the mosque, then at the round – a – bout turn left 9 o’clock. If you are coming from the direction of Sutera Harbour, then at the round – a – bout turn to the 3 o’ clock direction. Once you pass the round – a – bout the rest is easy as you can see the place on your right side, a large open air dining area with its grand entrance.

Time open – close: unsure. I usually frequent it in the evening around 6 – 8 pm.

Basic RM per meal: RM 8 (starting pay)

Parking is free. I like that.

Food court style, on grander scale. Clean, bright, airy and spacious. Sunset here is a blaze. A nice place for friends to come, relax and chat.

Here you can find all sorts of food, Japanese from Wagamama, Thai, Indian, Korean, claypot meals, all sorts of rice, local food from Etnik Sabah, noodles and Western. As usual Wagamama is nice and in my list of favourites, next is Etnik Sabah with their tantalizing local food including hinava (raw fish tossed with ginger and onion in lime juice) and ampap fish (fish cooked in gravy of tumeric, ginger and other spices, served with rice); Thai section is pretty decent though the fried rice has somewhat a flat appearance; Indian food turns out good with their tosai, claypot section has this amazing black pepper chicken; and the drinks section. The coolest no. plaque (the one they give you with your order no.) so far is from Etnik Sabah, a wooden spoon – shaped one. You can’t helped but be delighted at it as you received one. As for drinks, the waiters will come over to your table to take down your orders.

From the Thai food section: Green curry mussels.

Noodles section is pretty basic, and on one occasion the laksa was disappointingly lacking in taste and contents. The Western corner so far failed to attract me as their pasta struck me as flat, unappetizing – looking.

Overall, service is good except on busier hours. And finally, a properly presented local cuisine.

Rating: 4.5/5

Of hospital and ideals

Last week saw a column in The Star depicting a picture of our Health Minister talking to a patient in Queen Elizabeth Hospital (referred as Queen in this post). I refer to this particular picture because it’s showing what that is really happening in the main referral hospital here in Sabah. The picture showed a cardiac patient on a typical folding bed on the floor commonly used here in Queen whenever the wards are filled beyond their capacities. The patients’ files are then strewn somewhere on the crowded table stands supposedly used for patients to take their meals.

This is a typical scenario in Queen, the main referral hospital in Sabah. Everyday there is pressure to discharge near – stable patients or to refer back to district hospitals in order to make room for more patients and referrals. On any evening it’s no surprise to see the previously empty beds from morning or noon to be filled with new patients, or numerous folding beds to materialize on the floor until walking through the maze of beds and doctors and nurses and medical students becomes an obstacle trekking. The male wards especially, are in fact nick – named by medical students and many doctors as the war zone area. That’s the ward for you.

Accident and emergency (A&E) is no different. The moment you are just to heave a sigh of relief, a torrent of patients crashed into the Green, Yellow and Red zones. Then the frenzy of ECG, x – ray, IV lines and needles begin amidst the small area clogged up with medical personnel, equipments and patients. Mass accident is a nightmare for every doctor here. There is no such thing as 30 minutes wait. Even upon entrance patients would still end up in another waiting area.

Clinics mostly are spilling with patients till past lunch hour. A standard room of 5x5 m contains 2 tables and chairs for 2 doctors, 2 chairs for patients, a rack or shelf and a nurse’s table maybe, and a single examination bed. Extra furniture further cramped up the leftover space available. The lack of doctors paved a path for medical assistant (MA) to specialize and perform various high – level procedures such as echocardiography and Holter study in the cardiology clinic. Mind you, it’s not just technical handling but also medical results analysis and reporting. There are no other states, except maybe Sarawak, where you can see MA specializing in not only cardiology but anaesthesiology, psychiatry, orthopaedics, ophthalmology and various other high specialties especially in district hospitals.

Did I mention that Queen does not have a CT scan machine? Or at least a functioning one.

Thank God they shifted the Pediatrics and the Obs & Gyne wards to Likas hospital.

Note: the post is not meant to be degrading but a shout out to the public of the awful condition and reality here in Sabah.