Tax deadline

My colleague, Edmund always joked; there were only two things certain in life, death and taxes. And he was not wrong.

Just in case you guys were unaware, the deadline for last year's tax return filing would be the evening o the 31st of April 30th of April. Yes, you were quite welcomed to wait until then, but I prefer to get gongs over and done with. Since I was relatively well and free earlier today, I filed mine and submitted to my local Tax Office just opposite Jaya Jusco in Wangsa Maju.

There were hardly anybody there today, but I can imagine the place turning rowdy by the end of the month, judging from past experience. The office used to open till midnight on the final few nights, although now, a lot more people used the online e-filing service. Why didn't I do the same? Well I prefer to be old-fashioned when it comes to taxes. So, as they say, the rush was on .....

Update on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at 9:08PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Thanks Ervan for spotting the messed up date!

My turn

I ended up spending a good few hours in bed after coming home late morning. Body was aching this morning when I woke up but thought I could soldier on. Irfan woke us up first thing after he vomited just after 5 am
After some paracetamol, I felt better, good enough to hottie shower and got to work. The heavy rain certainly didn't help.

After seeing a couple of referrals, things just got from bad to worst. Told my colleagues that I may have to skip, sorted out my Day Care list to make sure that the patient's who booked to see me got sorted out, then off I went home to see GP with Irfan along. The family doctor pit Irfan on antibiotics but as usual, I refused mine. I just picked up the MC and went off home.

I lied in bed after some soup for lunch and did not wake up close to six. Felt better right after that watched a bit of TV, caught my fair share of emails and here I was. I think I would be calling it the evening soon as I had some prior engagement to sort out for tomorrow at the office. Can't miss tomorrow. The update I promised for the MasterPACES would also have to wait.

MasterPACES Day Two

The second day was done. And it was a very fruitful one. I woke up rather late after waking up to catch the United match last night. Yes, we got beat. That dampened the enthusiasm a wee bit, but I guessed I must soldier on. I slept through the alarm and only headed for the shower at 7.15.

Managed to reach Hospital Sungai Buloh by 8. It was easy as there were hardly any traffic. It turned out that I did not have to be in until 8.30. Well, it was betters to be early than late. The briefing took us to just before 9, and we kicked things off with a teaching round practicing the new Station 5 format.

After a quick tea, we started our mock exam. For the day, I was given a station 5 stop. The case was Hereditary Haemorrhaic Telangiectasia. Not everybody's cup of tea I was sure. But most of the candidate spotted the diagnosis and on the whole, all did betters than expected. As the station was the most tricky of the lot in teens of mark distribution, experiencing the station for the participants were very important. As I has been organizing the MRCP at UMMC for the past 7 years, I hope the tips I gave were useful. not everyone realised that Station 5 carried almost a third of the total PACES mark. Definitely disproportionate, making it doubly important to ace the station.

Some potassium to keep me goingThe Faculty Members at the endAfter everything was done, it was just past 4. We gave a quick round-up of our general impression to the candidates right after and everybody, at least I hoped went home happy. For those PACES candidates, in Malaysia, there was still a death of courses such as this. The only alternative I could think locally was the one run by IMU. Since they would be hosting the next PACES diet, I don't think that they would be running a course anytime soon.

Update on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 11:40PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Many thanks to readers who took the trouble to read this entry. I am truly humbled. At the same time, I have recieved a few emails from the participants to put down in writing some of the tips I have given to the group who I had the pleasure to take in the last couple of days. As it was kind of late in the evening, I will do the entry on another day and hopefully you all would be kind enough to return and check. If you need to contact me further, please do so through personal email. My email is haris.rahman@gmail.com

MasterPACES Day One

As mentioned, it was a working weekend this time around. The occasion, MasterPACES MRCP course in Sungai Buloh Hospital. It would be the second time j was involved and as the name suggest, it was a preparatory course for the MRCP Clinical exam n

Ariff giving it as good as it gets

Today was the teaching day, where I spend the best part of threat taking the students in groups of four, who rotate around to my station for around 20 minutes. It was a long slog, starting from 9 am, only to finish around 5 pm. I was shattered when I arrived home. And tomorrow, I shall be back for another day. The second day however would be mainly a mock exam. Looking at the schedule, I should finish a bit earlier at just after 4 pm.

Will write some more after tomorrow's session.

Ayam Dara?

After sorting out Idlan's antibiotics, we had to head out to search for dinner. Rather hungry by then and with my sore throat, I wanted to get some chicken soup. Some chicken soup for the tummy I must say.

The warung just near our place was famous for its 'Ayam Dara'. Wonder what was on offer .......