Obama Wins

I had a busy afternoon clinic today and when I reached home, I went straight to the television. Well, I don't really have much interest in who would win the Presidential election, but I jut couldn't help but to be curious.

So, Obama was re-elected. It didn't come as much if a surprise really. But the electoral process was certainly fascinating. I got the feeling that Obama underestimated Mitt Romney and nearly paid the ultimate price. And the he sure did receive a divine intervention in the form of Superstorm Sandy.

The momentum was with Romney prior to the last stretch, but with the hiatus created by the storm put a dampener to that. And while the East Coast recovered, Obama used his Presidential aura to get ahead. Well played that man!

So, Barack Obama remained the 44th President of the United States, be it by a smaller margin. And after having run his last political campaign of his career, one hope that he could concentrate on the issues that matters, for the global good. Fingers crossed!

At ntv7 Today

It wasn't the first time that I was asked to appear on a live television talk show. The last time was about 2 years ago when I was still at the University. It was always at Angkasapuri, and almost always in Malay - I did do a radio interview in English before. So, when I was approached to appear on a show in English, I just jumped at the chance. And this time it was at ntv7, in a women late morning talk show, appropriately called Bella Confidential.

Despite the target audience and gender slant, the subject matter should appeal to everyone. It was concerning the option of stem cell transplant as treatment in lymphoma and leukaemia, my bread and butter subject.

The talk started off by introducing a couple of patients - one had seen me previously - both treated at Hospital Ampang. They unfortunately suffered a relapse after their initial treatment and were currently being prepared for transplant, but in one of the lady's case, she had yet to find a suitable donor. The patient did very well in sharing their experience, and I couldn't help but feel that even without the segments with the doctors, the audience would have caught the geez of the discussion.

Waiting before going on airGroup photo - a lady from KPJ, Scha, Vanessa, Alia, Kim Yen and myselfI was there with a colleague from Ampang Puteri, Kim Yen. She was my predecessor at UMMC, and we took turn in discussing the subject from the medical point of view. Although it only lasted about 10 minutes, I thought we managed to get the key points across to the audience. The pacing was OK, and the moderator allowed ample opportunity for us to maneuver the discussion. I was pretty pleased with it in the end. I remember my discussion at RTM being cut short before when the program had to show a live feed - about a Minister officiating some event in town. At the end of that, I just wondered why they invited me in the first place.

Here, things were more laid back. There were no set script, and as a result, the discussion flowed freely.

And another highlight of the morning was actually meeting Ramli Ibrahim, the famed Odissi dancer. He was bigger in person, very personable, and he was there to promote an even coming on in the next few weeks. He offered me some tickets for the events, but I was more interested in talking to him about other things. Fascinating guy.

Run Out

No proper Sunday afternoon should go without taking the kids out, and heavy rain with nowhere to take them to. Well, that was what happened yesterday. So much for a Sunday afternoon eh?

Idlan has exams coming up tomorrow, and we wanted him to go out for some fresh air. Initially we set out to Pavilion for lunch, but it was packed. I was not able to get a parking spot. We turned back. And headed out to Solaris instead.

Lunch was at B.I.G. A nice simple one. But as long as we had pizza, we were OK. Pizza and salad. And hot coffee. Anita and myself had our lunch earlier.

By the time lunch was done, the rain subsided. A quick rush to Tasik Perdana and off we set out to the park. It only lasted about 20 minutes before the sky turned dark again. We made it back to the van just in time before it started pouring again. But the 20 minutes might just be enough as the place was empty. They had the chance to play with the swings and things. No need to wait for anything.

So, we reached home by about 5. The day was still early but decided to turn in early with the exams on Monday. Went to bed extra early and when I got up this morning at 6, the boys were already waking up. A good start for the week. Happy Monday all.

Sunday at B.I.G.

The B.I.G. - Ben's Independent Grocer - at Solaris Dutamas was an imposing store at so many level. It was located on the Lower Ground, and one could never miss it.

We could spend the whole afternoon at the place alone. There were rows of groceries, plus a couple of nice cafe to sit at to pass the time - code for husbands to sit down while the wives were doing the shopping.

We sat down at the cafe yesterday to have lunch. The food was OK. The lasagna and pizza were great, but the salad not really. In fact it was rather disappointing. It was meant to be a Mediterranean el fresco twist to it, but fallen miserably short.

Sitting for lunchThe salad was not really nice at allThe lasagna however was superbLet's ask what Irfan thought of the pizza .... self explanatory ........ and the mocha was not badAfter lunch, my boys went berserk at the grocers. Especially the more domesticated Irfan. He kept piling up the baskets with all sorts of food. Idlan couldn't care less. Everything was clearly and well laid out. And the other plus about the place was the majority of the staffs there were locals. Communications was easy. The butcher however was Australian .... which was a bit strange.

I wonder what that big "B" was doing in the middle of the aisleDefinitely a place to visit. A nice place to spend Sunday lunch, if you have some groceries to do.

Meet up at G Tower

I didn't even know that the G Tower, right opposite Ampang Park, next to the Tabung Haji building was actually a conference center and hotel. I thought it was more o an office building of sort.

Yesterday was the first time I set foot there. A nice but small hotel, but the conference facilities were OK. There were only three floors of accommodation, suitable for those coming for an overnight meeting from out of town. The catering was also pretty standard.

I had a small conference there, followed later in the afternoon by my council meeting. Getting there was pretty straight forward from Subang, although I was not able to join before lunch due to work commitments. I took the NPE, then turning towards SMART tunnel, and when I emerged on the Jalan Tun Razak exit, I was almost there already. Took me user 30 minutes even in the rain, and Saturday afternoon traffic.

Well, I was bored .....We had an update session on Haematology, and it was a joint meeting between the clinician and Haemato-Pathologist. Very interesting session although I found myself hard to concentrate late on a Saturday afternoon. But the suggestion of building a centralised Lymphoma Pathology Center brought me out of my slumber ..... For which I would reserve my thoughts for the time being.

Anyway, just to mention that G Tower was a nice venue. That's all.