A Masterplan

It's always very tiring turning up at work after missing a couple of days. In my case, with the last couple of days away in Ipoh, I had plenty of catching up to do. None more so than the plan I was hatching with a Pharmaceutical company friend about a workshop in the next couple of months.

The plan initially came about a couple of years back with a former housemate from Sheffield. He was working with a Pharmaceutical company then, still is now, but only in a different division. We had this idea of teaching the specifics of antibiotics therapy to the Masters students or senior Medical Officer who will be Specialist in the coming few years. The first was held in Port Dickson in 2008. We were now planning the second instalment. The discussion just now concerns the venue and the content.

It was still in it's early draft and we were deciding on the suitable speakers. We had a few in mind. A few phone calls needed to be made. The timing will also soon be finalised but I can't see it happening before June.

Program such as this I feel is quite important as the alternative would be either flying the students abroad to conferences or flying in speakers from abroad to give a lecture or two. What we needed was more coaching and sharing of experiences rather than just a one-way lecture. In PD during the last workshop, we had a voting pad sustem installed so that questions can be answered anonymously. We Malaysian are always afraid to get things wrong even though we don't have clues what the answers were. That way, we can gauge undertanding in the crowd and address issues directly. I was hoping for more of these but once in a couple of years was a good start.

Some bad news

My God invigilating was boring. Today was my second day here and I spent last night in my hotel room watching a marathon of Fringe. I completed five episodes before feeling sleepy. Did not manage to edit any more chapters of my the Haem UMMC website. Was not in the mood I guess.

The exam this morning was over 3 hours. Then I have to do some paperwork before driving back to UMMC with some documents. Back at work tomorrow. I also recieved some bad news from Sarawak last night. One of my patient who unfortunately relapsed following stem cell transplant drew her last breath. She had a good Christmas and at the end decided against any further chemotherapy when she learned that her disease was back. I think it was a very good decision on her part. Some felt that that was a defeatist attitude but it was always better to fight battles you were likely to win. With that decision, she survived an extra 3 months, spent it with good quality of life doing all the things she always wanted and died surrounded by friends and family rather than tubes and needles. Rest in peace Dear!

Exploring Ipoh

Finally back at the Hotel. The car park was blocked because apparently there will be a party going on tonight. They were testing the soundstage just then with Lady Gaga's numbers. The entrance to the hall was covered with the spelling of 'GLAMOROUS' in glitters. I wonder what that was all about.

Managed to get my fix of reading and Starbucks just now at Ipoh Parade. Nothing much else was going on down there. There were mainly IT shops and bazaar selling clothes. Didn't know what else to expect really. Now it was time for shower. But what's next?

I brought with me a few CDs of Fringe. Might do a marathon of that later. Maybe another article for hematologiPPUM. I'll decide later.

Kampung Ahoy!

At our kampung house at the moment. Everything looked nice and welcoming although the area just outside the compound needed some weed trimming. It has been warm here lately with not much rain, so some of the vegetables we planted died. Never had green fingers anyway!

It has been close to a couple of month since we last been here. It looked like we were due to come here again!

Laksa time!

The next port of call was Kuala Kangsar. I have o admit that there were hardly anything in Ipoh that I can't find in KL. Might as well drive along to somewhere with more exotic things to find. Decided to have some laksa there instead, with some ABC for good measure.

Called Puan Anita and she suggested that I give our kampung house a visit. That's where I will be heading next.

The waterfront