Outing and a Half - Taman Tasik Perdana

Let's do it!We had enough of going to shopping malls ending up spending money. We decided to go for strolls instead. To get the boys some fresh air - if you can have any in Kuala Lumpur. We were lucky since it was not raining yesterday afternoon nor was it too sunny. It was overcast and we decided to go to Tasik Perdana. Puan Anita has been reading about the parks and hidden perks there from the magazines but we never got around to explore them. I was very familiar with the area, frequenting the Orchid Gardens, Butterfly and Bird Parks, but never actually stop by the public park at Tasik Perdana.

Rangers on their horsesThe playground area - Dino Park!Irfan bouncingAnd now it was Idlan's turn

We reached there just after 4 pm, driving past Panggung Aniversari which was being renovated and modernised. From what it looked from the outside, it was certainly awesome what they were constructing. We got some to some space to ark just outside the Lake Club and quickly made our way to the playground. After about 30 minutes of running around, we decided to walk by the water fountains and herbal gardens just round the corner. There were, I counted four couples having their picture taken for their wedding albums. It was certainly a popular spot and the backdrop were actually not bad at all. We then noticed, a shuttle service taking visitors round the parks. We took one and then we discovered the other lakes and parks in the surrounding area that we did not know about. One can enjoy paddle boat at one of the lakes, there was also a dear park, a small little lake which they called ‘the Oasis’ and a Dear Park. For 50 sens per head, the ride took us up the hill to the planetarium, around the bird and butterfly parks, which we can stop at if so we wished. We decided to take a round trip back to the playground and walk around to a cafe for a quick drink.

Taking a breatherA quick cool downDaddy refuelingAfter some snacks, the boys did some more running. We strolled around a bit more, let the boys do more climbing. We finally called it a day at around 6.30. It was a really nice outing. Guess what? When we first arrived there, I heard somebody familiar calling my name. It was my Boss. She was having a quick walk - she was heavily pregnant - with her maid and son Ee Wan. That was certainly a surprise!

More runningNewlyweds having their pics takenTime to leaveAll in all, the park was very clean by Malaysian standard. Bins were available everywhere. There were always cleaners and rangers nearby to lend a hand. The public toilets and facilities were very well kept and clean. The paddle boats sure looked aged, but the safety equipment were intact and there were supervisors overseeing things all the time. The food served to public were reasonable at the stalls. My boys enjoyed running on the grass going up and down the hills. The public park area were closed to cars, so one should not worry about kids running around and being hit by traffic. The sidewalks were wide enough for joggers and parents taking strollers around. The playground equipment were also old but appeared well maintained with all the swings and ropes in working order. The lake next to the playground were not really cleaned up and was rather too close for comfort to the benches and some of the slides. Maybe it more attention given to this particular stretch of water, maybe developing it into an area for fishing or boating. Some of the gardens and pagola needed a make over, but as the park was free to the public, maybe funding was an issue. A highly recommended place to take a young family. I found this to be more appealing than Tasik Titiwangsa as a place to jog.

Slideshow for the outing was posted here.

Party

Just finished my morning weekend round and then a tutorial for the Anaesthesia MO. They have an exam coming up in 3 weeks and I did a session on haemostasis with them. Rather complicated but hopefully they can pick something useful up from the discussion.

Arriving for the ward round this morning, I was surprised to look at the effort made by the Paediatrics Department this morning to cheer up their Oncology patients. Something that should be commended. I wish that similar thing can be done for my adult patients but that would be highly inappropriate really. Every few month, they organised a variety show for the patients, inviting celebrities and singers with games and shows. It was very well received despite the heavy rain in Kuala Lumpur this morning. I only managed to catch a glimpse of the whole party. By the time I settle to start my tutorial, I kept being distracted by Lady Gaga playing in the background. The venue was almost full and the catering was provided by Hotel Istana which I thought was cool - our wedding was held there, mind you 13 years ago!

I was now about to leave for home. Puan Anita just called an she was planning an outing. Will wait and see what she has in mind!

Results

I had the pleasure and displeasure earlier today to be present during the announcement of the results for the MMed Part I and II written exams taking place earlier this week. The majority of the candidates passed, and were looking forward to the Clinical Paper next months. Unfortunately there were casualties. A number of them I really did not expect to fail and I really was disappointed.

My colleague and I will be mulling through their marks and will try to make an objective recommendation when I meet them again next week for a post-mortem discussions. The implication of failing such exam was quite big, in the sense that, it forms a delay in their graduation by six months. It can result loss of seniority and income, not to mention denting one’s confidence. I hope those who did not make it this time to be objective, take the weekend off to chill. We shall meet again next week to see how we can assist them to pass in the very next seating. For those who have passed, you may still chill, but remember, the clinicals will be around soon. Before start working for that!

Marking

One of the main problem of being a Medical Lecturer is participating in assessment. Medical Lecturers were trained to become doctors first and foremost. Most of us have passion for teaching and research, but when it comes to curriculum building and assessment, we lack coaching and guidance. I attended a couple of courses on how to assess students, and was baffled at how much I didn’t know. To really learn the techniques, I was sure I will need about 4 weeks of coaching, without having to participate in clinical commitments to just be familiar, let alone master it. No wonder when it comes to assessing Medical Students to graduate them as doctors, even if the instruments were in place, often times it lacked standardisation. We then ended up not being discriminating enough in identifying the really poor candidates who did not deserve to pass, while picking up the cream to be promoted for distinctions. During exams, we as the examiners tended to trust our ‘gut’ feeling and let our emotions dictate our marking if we were not careful. For the last five years, I have never been really comfortable at being an examiner but in the last couple, I felt more at ease.

How about marking for written assessment? We can be terrible. I was marking essays today for the Masters exam and spent so much time trying to ‘deconstruct’ what was written and tried to be objective and methodical in distributing the marks. It was not easy, but things were getting better. Realising this, the steering and vetting committee decided to impress upon us examiners on the value of conforming to a marking scheme, while allowing some leeway for the candidates to express their thoughts. To help, the number of the examiners were also increased. For the 48 or so scripts we had to mark this morning, we had 12 examiners. In the end, we only had to scrutinise eight scripts before cross-checking them with a partner. At the end, everything was completed inside 2 and a half hours and I was already back at my Day Care by noon. I was dreading that the session would have extended until the afternoon. I was glad I was wrong.

Razor

EF 50mm f1.4; 1/30s f1.8Yes! I saved up enough to replace the broken lens. Unfortunately I can only use manual focussing on my 400D body as the focussing contact was still suspect. The lens worked a treat as you can judge from these images. I also dusted out another of my old lens, the EF-S 60mm Macro. The images wasn’t half bad actually! Posting some of the samples from the couple of lenses taken during the weekend.

EF 50mm f1.4; 1/40s f1.8EF 50mm f1.4; 1/200s f1.8EF 50mm f1.4; 1/200s f1.8EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro; 1/2500s f2.8EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro; 1/400s f3.2EF-S 60mm f2.8; 1/250s f3.2EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro; 1/320s f4.5