No Water

The water shortage fever had finally hit us at Gombak. We ran out of water this afternoon prompting a call from Anita earning me about it. But it was too much of hassle turning round to have a shower at the apartment before returning home with the traffic jam and all.

And with the water shortage, we had to have dinner outside as well. Double hassle on a school night. That meant picking the boys up from their Quran class and drive out to get food. By the time dinner was done, it would be 9 already. And we would pray then that the water would be back so that I can have a shower.

Well, we were still out since the boys didn't touch their food at the restaurant earlier - the food was bad. We were now waiting for pizza, in the car waiting for the order. I was sure I would head straight to bed once I was done with the shower ....

At the Suite!

Yes, I get to see the new suite at ParkCity. Nice and neat, but no windows! Oh no! I'm not talking about the Microsoft kind here. The furniture and equipments were all brand new of course. Nice comfy chairs and sofa outside the door of my suite.

The room have an examination table right next to it - the ones in Subang had separate compartment. I also noticed that my clinic assistant would be stationed away from my door. Not a problem but something I needed to get used to. I was still yet to be issued password for my desktop and the WiFi network. The phone signal is reasonable - HSPA on my DiGi but Edge most of the time on the Celcom network.

There was also a direct ramp to the outpatient clinics straight to the car park. Which is good. No cafe as yet opened at the hospital. That would come a bit later.

Getting to know the route a bit better but was caught at Subway due to traffic. Would have to find another way to get out of Subang from now on. But once I got onto the LDP, it was smooth going, apart from a couple of long waits at the traffic lights once I enter Bandar Manjalara.

Settled down, got some paperwork sorted out. I would be opening proper only next Monday, so no patients yet.

Now on to the next challenge. How to I get to Bangsar in time for lunch? ......

Subang to ParkCity

I spend Monday morning exploring the route from Subang to Desa ParkCity. Tricky, but leaving after 9, the traffic was light when I cruised down LDP highway. But, I then missed a turn near Keeping, and ended up having to exit the MRR2 to make a U-turn. That added an extra 10 minutes to my journey.

But the main thing was it took just over half an hour to the total travel time, which was great.

It was one thing traveling outside rush hour, another during it. So, I think I'd better plan my journey as such so that I could limit unnecessary travel. From next week, I would start Monday and Wednesday mornings there. That meant, no more relaxing Monday morning ritual at Chawan - well, that had to cut down.

I've also made arrangements to start with the first patient only after 10. The only problem would be if I had to look after patients at ParkCity as the primary doctor. I would make a point to transfer the ill patients across to Subang as I couldn't afford to ferry myself back and forth. It would end up badly for the patient and I.

I spent the rest of the morning looking around at the facilities, my clinic room, the wards, CCU and the labs.

Driving back, via Bangsar, took a bit longer as my GPS took me into the back roads of Bukit Kiara, then Hartamas. This must be avoided during lunchtime though. Nightmare!

So, I'll be traveling down there again tomorrow even though my clinic proper would only begin next week. The first few months should be quiet, and hopefully it won't disrupt my routine too much.

A Month With the Nexus 4

The first thing I did when I landed at Atlanta was to look around for a phone shop. What exactly was I looking for? Of course the Nexus 4. New stocks were just being released by Google and LG in the last couple of days after the supply ran dry form the launch.

The first couple of shops I went to has yet to receive a stock. But in was lucky the third time. It was a T Mobile vendor and I paid about USD 599 for a contract-free unit. And it was the last one. The stock only game in the same morning. No hesitations. I then got a rolling monthly data package to go with the phone and I was set! And that was about a month ago.

I hesitated to write about it earlier since for some reason I wasn't very happy happy with the camera. I then sorted out the quirks, and still something was missing. Somehow it lacked the charm of the Galaxy Nexus. It wasn't a disappointment. It was more about managing expectation.

Let's start with the good points. The camera was better then the Galaxy Nexus, but I doubt it if it trumped the Note II or the S3. My 4S produced better capture. But maybe it was the software. Downloading Snapseed improved matters. But only marginally. The camera has a few neat trick up their sleeves though software-wise. There was the panorama and the ability to produce a 360 degrees capture.

The processor was blazing fast. The screen wheezed through like a breeze, thanks to Jelly Bean and Project Butter. Calendar app and Gmail felt native - indeed they were. There was no lag whatsoever. My Nova Launcher screen loaded up without any hiccups. Switching between apps did not cause any stutter. Everything felt fast for the first time on an Android platform.

The screen was vivid and the resolution was as high as the iPhone, making reading a pleasure. It also came with Google Now, a smart update system which predicted what you would want to see on the home screen. Neat!

But there were price to pay for all this. My main woe was the battery life. It only lasted around 4 hours with constant use. I browsed around the forum looking for a solution but they involved compromising the Android experience by switching off updates and certain features. Nexus 7 ran without any problem - I also carry a 3G Nexus 7 unit with me. The battery lasts all day. I was sure that a software and setting tweaks may solve this, but at the moment, I had to live it still. Mind you, I used to have similar problem with the iPhone, but it was now sorted out. Even my Galaxy Nexus lasted longer.

And the battery issue would be enough to put off certain people, and I could relate to that. But this being a stock vanilla Google phone, was still the phone to have if you were like me appreciate reliability and getting the latest in terms of software, rather than having gimmicks on the phone screen. It helps to have a fast phone as well.

For those who wanted the latest in Google experience, definitely grab this phone if you must. It you already own one of the latest top of the line Android phone, or even still own a working Galaxy Nexus, you might as well wait for future software updates to sort out the kinks on the current batch.

Being Driven Around

As soon as I reached home after the morning ward round, Anita told me that we had to head to the apartment as a prospective buyer wanted to have a look at it. On a Sunday? But well. Our lease will be up next month, and we were waiting to move into a new place on the same block. That would be next month as well.

I thought of just having a sleep rather than follow her along, but she insisted. Luckily, she also asked the family driver to take us along. So, at least I get to nap in the van and not have to worry about driving. Good thing, as I could ask to be drop for my Sunday afternoon post-take rounds as well.

Call last night was busier than I anticipated. As it was raining in the evening, I thought admission would stop coming. But I was wrong. A couple of sick ones as well.

Just finished my rounds and being driven home. Would stop for tandoori take-out as well as United would be playing Liverpool tonight. Big match. Hopefully I could stay awake for that .......