Tale of the Index Finger

Work Essentials 2 - The Juice, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Monday. Such fun. I woke up this morning with Irfan having high fever. Coughing and unable to sleep all night. Luckily Idlan slept through, otherwise it would have been double trouble.

We had to have a change of plans then as I had to do the school run. It turned out to be a treat even though I arrived around 8.30 for work. Idlan was really beaming when I took him to class, and insisted on me actually going into his classroom.

Monday has traditionally been a busy day for my unit. We start with the grand round, followed by a busy-than-usual day care, when we may see up to 40 patients starting just after 11. It turned out to be around 30 today. Straight after lunch is the transplant clinic. I had the referrals to wrestle through after that and I manage to finish all of it by 6 today. Thanks to DUKE, I was home 30 minutes later.

For the last couple of weeks, my right index finger has been playing up. I think it is an old badminton injury. It causes a stinging pain on the finger joint every time I try to smash or hit the shuttle hard. According to my orthopaedic friend, I have to rest it for 4 weeks. No badminton tonight then.

Anita took Irfan to our GP earlier. He is on antibiotics at the moment. By the evening, he has got his appetite back and up to his old tricks! I am with him at the moment while he is watching the 'Disney Channel' as Anita is putting Idlan to sleep.

Another upload but from a different computer - please indulge me

Sunset Dip, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

This picture was taken on Labour Day near our apartment @ Bayu Beach Resort. Port Dickson. Check out the golden hour sun, it was simply juicy.

This was taken after a good hour spent on the beach and water. Unfortunately the the tide was low and caused the sand to be rather muddy. Weather was gorgeous though. If features my two boys Idlan and Irfan getting rather cold. You can click on the link to see the rest of my flickr post!

Back in KL

They don't appear keen to go home. Do they?

The 'Problem Solving' paper this morning seems rather more reasonable compared to the CPC yesterday. After the exams, there were some confusion about what to bring back with me to KL. I was rather anxious to get going because I don't want to be stuck with exam papers in my hands overnight. Anything can happen!

Idlan playing Wii in the hotel suite while Irfan and Mum surfing the Net

The counting of the scripts after the exam also took longer than expected. There were a few scripts without the seat number filled, making life complicated for us. We tallied everything in the end. The list for short and long cases next week has been announced. The students now have a clear idea of what is ahead. The RCMP boys and girls will be traveling in a couple of buses to UM this afternoon, hoping to reach there before the traffic build up. They will be spending the next 10 days or so in UniKL campuses, being shipped into UM daily for the exams. The OSCE will start tomorrow running for a couple of days. They will then have the rest of the week off before the long cases Monday to Wednesday, the short cases Thursday onwards. They will be praying for good news come Monday to hopefully attend the mini convocation on the 7th. I might take my leave that day and see off my Final year students. Have to start calling them doctors by then!

The Racecourse from our suite window

Since there were no rush, we had lunch at Casuarina before leaving. We left just before three. On the way to Tambun yesterday, Anita was struck by a sign board just off Casuarina pointing the way to 'Impiana Bougainvillea'. She thought it is a hotel or a rest house. It turned to be a new housing development. Disappointed, we made our way to KL, reaching the Jalan Duta toll house just before 5. There was no traffic jam back to Gombak. Had the time to clean the car right after before settling in. Back to work tomorrow. I have already have a couple of text messages this morning from patients asking if I will be in tomorrow.

The Lost World of Tambun

Irfan on the pirate ship a Explorabay

After the formal stuff was done, the boys got fretful and wanted to go out. A quick web search and we thought we give the 'Lost World of Tambun' a look. We actually were looking for a place to have lunch initially. The theme park is located about 20 minutes away from Casuarina in the lunchtime traffic - which is no where near as hectic as KL. Typical of Malaysia, if not for my GPS, we would have gotten lost. The signage was next to pathetic. The have enough in terms of quantity, but they were well hidden from important turns. Quality tak dak!

You drive out of town towards the PLUS highway but through it. It is in a new township, built around the old Tambun town. There were plenty of new housing project around, plus of course a Sunway College as the whole area were developed by the Sunway Group.

A quick snack at the cafe

We reached there just after 1.30. A quick lunch at a burger bar. The boys were getting restless for a swim. There were 3 main pool areas, the Waterfall Beach Garden, complete with sand and man-made waves. The second being the Kid's Explorabay, with pirate ships and slides suitable for kids like Irfan and Idlan. The water here was only 50 cm deep max. The last pool area was unfortunately closed for cleaning. It is called Tambun Hot Spring. Apparently it is fed from a natural spring nearby and a big hit around here, with good lighting at night.

We spend a couple of hours at the Explorabay and a further 30 minutes at the beach. Luckily it is the week after the school break. There were not many people around. A few of the attractions and stalls were only opened at night. There were a couple of restaurants open and getting food is really easy. Changing room was a surprise for Anita as both the changing area and toilet were open air. The roof is open with only partitions for the cubicles.

After a long day, Irfan deserved a rest. Here trying to sleep with his Doraemon

Should you guys want to cuti-cuti Malaysia, you should give this place a go. There are plenty to explore with kayaking, animal feedings, camping and team-building facilities. There were also plenty of accommodation nearby. But most importantly, Giant is next door for a quick shopping. Well worth the RM25 entrance fee! Check out the website. Careful, the gate is closed on Tuesdays except during school breaks.

*pics of my boys were intentionally desaturated, sorry!

Greetings From Ipoh

Cought a sight of this party taxi just as I was departing. There were plenty more balloon on the back seat! I wonder how much the fare is for them! Maybe tak pakai meter!Made it to Ipoh finally by 4pm, after the drama at the start - see my previous post and update.

I am here representing the UM Medical Faculty to the Perak Medical College. They will have the same exam as our UM boys and girls from tomorrow. Since my wife is from Perak, she decided to follow. So we rented an extra room, and both Idlan and Irfan were having a blast. We were at the pool for nearly an hour and a half. Ordered food for afternoon tea, which they gobbled down. We just got back form dinner, and they were running around like headless chicken in the lobby.

Casuarina Ipoh - now known as Impiana Casuarina - is one of those 80's hotel, old school style lobby, old furniture in the rooms. I remember staying here in the late 80s with my parents. It used to be more 'happening' then. It used to be buzzing with people, a place where who's who used to chill. I remember bumping into the previous Menteri Besar and his family while his children were playing in the pool. I bet it will not happen now as we can't even be sure who the Menteri Besar is here.

The Main Lobby at Impiana Casuarina tonightThe lobby was expansive but felt empty. There were nobody playing on the grand piano, there was no background music or chatter. The cafeteria was also pretty basic, although I was told that it was one of the best 'high tea' Ipoh has to offer. We had buffet there for our dinner. The spread was nothing fancy, the main dish being beriyani with a couple of sides. There was also some pasta, some basic salad with dressings. A disappointment really, at a place I used to look forward to visit when I was young. Maybe I was pampered too much with good food in Bangsar and around KLCC. 

The only thing that got the place going must be the swimming pool. We stayed here sometime last year when my wife's uncle died. The boys wanted to hit the pool but time was tight. They got their wish this time around.  The breakfast then was pretty OK. That is something to look forward to tomorrow morning.

As for my boys and girls in the final year at UM, they will have their Final MB coming up tomorrow. So all the best. Stay calm. I am sure I will have to call you with Dr as the prefix in a couple of weeks time. Good night and good luck.