Back to Work

First day back after a long weekend was always hard. Not because it was such a pain to get up to go to work - I have been going to the wards every morning during the 4-day weekend either to see patients or to take my Mum for her eye check-up, but the backlog of work waiting for me when the clinic reopened.

Started the day arranging my Mum's appointment at the eye clinic. Then, ward round and Day Care clinic. After lunch, I had a meeting across the campus, taking the whole afternoon. Finally, when I reached home, I was in need of a power nap. The fact that I woke up for the second half of the Chelsea-Liverpool last night did not help. I was happy that Liverpool won for a change, after United slipped up at Wolverhampton the other night. That preserved our 10 points lead over Chelsea in the league.

For this evening, Puan Anita made a special treat for us. She cooked me my favourite, Chicken Vindaloo. Nice! Went well with pappadom and some mango chutney that did. I might have to call for an early night an wake up early tomorrow morning to dinky off the paperwork I had for the meeting yesterday.

CNY at Pavilion

For the current Chinese New Year festivities, I did not have much chance to take my camera out for a spin. The only chance I had was on the Federal Territory day when I managed a 30 minutes walk-about around Pavilion.

True to the rabbit theme, there were rabbits everywhere as well as the obligatory tanglungs. The main foyer was well decked out, reds lantern everywhere. There was also drums which visitors were free to try at the main entrance. No dragon dance that day unfortunately.

Return to Strawberry Park

We returned to Goh Tong last Tuesday, a public holiday for the Federal Territories. Luckily, due to what I thought was a miscalculation, UMMC was labelled as Kuala Lumpur even though it was Selangor right across the street. Until a few years back, Selangor had more holidays than KL - including Thaipusam which used to be a Selangor-only affair. Now, it was almost even, and Tuesday was one of those days when my Facebook updates were greeted with dismay by my Selangor friends. As the boys were on a week long holidays for the Chinese New Year, we decided that some strawberry picking might be in order. So off we went.

The traffic up was smooth and we took my Mum-in-law along. We got there before lunchtime and the boys excitedly jumped out of the van and began picking the strawberries, armed with a pair of scissors and a cute little plastic basket.

As I mentioned in the previous entries, the Genting Strawberry Leisure Farm is a nice little place in Gohtong, halfway up Genting. Children can freely walk the row of hydrophonically planted strawberries and pluck them from the stalks. It was a novelty in Malaysia due to our warm clime, and previously one can only enjoy strawberry picking in Cameron Highlands. Since the Omar was only 39 minutes from our house, I wondered why we did not come her more often. Once picked, the basket weighed and the price for the pickings was RM6 per 100g. Trust me, it was easy to end up with 500g.

The boys picked ip a basket each. The rows of strawberry plants were just nicely planted at a height where the boys can just cut the stall with their scissors. Self-restrain was redivided needed. I ended up in the end paying close to RM70 for all the strawberries. But judging form how excited the boys were, it was worth it. They then had some ice-cream - Irfan went for a strawberry ice-cream, while my Mum walked around at the mushroom farm just next door.

We had lunch at the local Seri Malaysia Hotel right across the street from the farm. There was also a chocolate factory there but we were too hungry for lunch to bother stopping. The strawberry feast continued later in the day when we reached home, with double-cream this time. Unfortunately, the pickings were already starting to soften by the time we reach home. Apparently, the strawberry needed eating within 24 hours of picking, otherwise they can go off. We did not have a problem with that whatsoever!

The strawberry farm is only 45 minutes from central KL, via the Karak Highway off Gombak. Just follow the signpost to Genting Highlands and turn off at Gohtong Jaya town. The farm will be right at the of the street, opposite the Gohtong Sports Complex. There were many signpost to direct you to it. Parking can be a problem during peak season, but the setup was children friendly and certainly, it was easy to maneuver prams ad trolleys around there. Apart from the strawberry and mushroom farms, there were also a small orchid, cactus and vegetable nurseries, as well as nice cafe and restaurants. There were also stalls selling memorabilias and tidbits. Clean restroom and toilets were also available. Definitely a nice outing for the family!

Happy Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year. Of all people, I bumped into my boss and her family when we were at Bangsar Village II earlier, and that was what I wished her when she was handing over some ang pow to my boys. Of all people.

I started the day with taking my Mum to see the Opthalmologist on call at UMMC. She has been been having eye pain for the last week, initially thought to be due to infection she got from Imran, my nephew. A few months back, she had an injury to the eye. While gardening, one of the leaves whipped into her eye causing a small abrasion. Since then, she had always been feeling some discomfort there. I brought her in on Monday and one of my friend confirmed that the abrasion was back. The infection made it worst. In the last couple of days, there was a layer forming on the eye causing the infection to stay. For the last couple of days, the Opthalmologist had to remove the layers by waging the eye. She will need another wash tomorrow.

Is it Ben 10 .... or Ben 10?Daddy wants this

After I was done with Mum, we went out for lunch in Bangsar. That was where I bumped into my boss. After lunch at La Bodega, we went for a walk at Bangsar Village, and then Mid Valley Gardens. What was apparent was the mall was empty. Driving back home only took 15 minutes across town. There were hardly any traffic. Parking was easy. I wish that it was like this everyday. But that would not be fun wouldn't it. KL minus the traffic will never be the same!

No free lunch

Little did I realise the impact of the economy crisis to the usual running of my Department. The Medical profession has always in one way or the other share a connection with the Pharmaceutical companies. In a certain way, they can be a player in Continuing Medical Education (CME) program amongst the Medical fraternity. Without their endowment, many of the Medical conference would cease to exist. Honestly speaking, they are essential to Medicine.

They take the gamble in Medical research. Even though the rake billions when the drug they develop became a hit, they also foot up the bull if they tank. It can be a huge gamble. The Medical profession can't afford that. They also invest a lot money in the clinical testing of the drugs, making sure that the theoretical therapeutic properties of the drug translate into day to day use. There was no point having a drug that work on paper but kill us the moment we swallow them.

I observed that since the turn of the year, the sponsorships from the Pharmaceuticals was slowly drying out. Yes, I got my usual share of diaries and wall calendars for the year, but the feeling was palpable. Take today for example, out Department CME went by without the presence if the Pharmaceuticals. That translated to no free lunch. It was not that I was desperate for them - the lunch was becoming generic lately anyhow - but it was nice to have lunch on the go while listening to some talks and presentation. As it turned out, we had to delay the session so that the MOs were able to catch some bite.

The Economy crisis has hit the Department. Upon looking at the bookings for CME sponsorship, we were usually booked up many months in advance. It turned out that there were bow few empty slots .......