A Win Carries You Further Than You Think

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There's something about starting the week on the right side of a result. United did the business last night, and I won't pretend it didn't colour everything that followed. The alarm felt less aggressive. The coffee tasted more deliberate. Even the drive in had a certain ease to it — traffic lighter than usual, the sun doing its best impression of generosity, the whole city seemingly in no rush to complicate things.

Rounds went smoothly, which is the kind of sentence that sounds unremarkable until you've lived through the alternative. Some mornings the list unravels before you've finished your first lap of the ward. Today, though, everything held together. Patients stable, plans clear, the team moving with that quiet efficiency that makes the work feel almost elegant. I'll take it.

Lunch, for once, wasn't a thing I inhaled between tasks. I actually sat down. Took my time. There's a minor rebellion in eating slowly on a weekday, a small act of defiance against the clock. The food itself was nothing extraordinary, but the pace made it feel like something worth having. A proper pause rather than a refuelling stop.

The afternoon stretched out in that way clinics tend to — patient after patient, each one their own small world of concerns and questions and histories. Long but not gruelling. There's a rhythm to it when things are flowing, a kind of conversational cadence that carries you through. A procedure at the tail end kept me focused right to the finish, but I managed to wrap up and get out with daylight still in my pocket. Home before sunset. That alone felt like a small victory.

After dinner, I caught a webinar on Heidi AI — the clinical AI scribe I've been using — featuring Alan Teh, a colleague whose opinion I tend to trust on these things. It's always interesting watching someone you know navigate the slightly performative format of an online panel. Alan handled it well, as expected. The tool itself continues to evolve in ways that are genuinely useful, and it's good to see familiar faces helping shape the conversation around it. Technology demos can be dry affairs, but when someone you respect is doing the talking, you pay closer attention.

The rest of the evening was quiet. The kind of Monday night where you're not chasing anything, just letting the day settle. The weekend's result still glowing faintly in the background, the week ahead not yet demanding anything specific. Anita and I exchanged the usual end-of-day dispatches — her day, my day, the comfortable shorthand of two people who've long since stopped needing to narrate every detail. Sometimes a Monday just works. No drama, no friction, just a day that does exactly what it promises and then politely steps aside.

Monday Wore Its Sensible Shoes

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A new week, then. Monday arrived the way it always does — without fanfare, slightly damp, carrying that particular energy of a nation collectively remembering how to set an alarm. After a long weekend, the return to routine felt less like a rude awakening and more like slipping back into a well-worn groove. The kind you don't especially love but have come to respect.

The weekend had stretched itself out generously, as long weekends tend to do. By Sunday evening it had begun to feel like borrowed time, that strange liminal space where you're technically still off but mentally already drafting tomorrow's to-do list in the shower. So when Monday morning actually materialised, there was something almost reassuring about it. Structure has its quiet charms.

And as Mondays go, this one behaved itself remarkably well. There's a certain satisfaction in a day that simply works— no crises, no loose threads unravelling at inopportune moments, just one task following another in something close to logical order. Efficient is the word, though it sounds a bit clinical. Perhaps tidy is better. The day had a tidiness to it. Everything where it ought to be, nothing left hanging.

The real triumph, if we're being honest, was walking through the front door before six. There's a version of most weekdays where that doesn't happen, where the evening is already half-spent by the time you're hanging up your coat. But today the light was still good when I got home, the kitchen still had that mid-afternoon warmth about it, and dinner came together without the usual negotiation between ambition and exhaustion. It was a proper sit-down affair. Nothing elaborate — just well-timed, well-made, and eaten at a civilised hour. The kind of meal that doesn't demand a review but quietly earns one.

The evening unfolded the way the best ones do: without a plan. Shoes off, something easy on in the background, the sofa doing its finest work. There's an art to doing very little with real commitment, and tonight I practiced it with the dedication of a seasoned professional. No guilt, no nagging sense that something productive should be happening. Just the gentle winding down of a day that had already given enough.

It occurs to me that we rarely celebrate the ordinary Monday. The one that doesn't test you, doesn't throw anything unexpected across your path, just lets you get on with it and sends you home at a reasonable hour. These are the days that hold a week together — unremarkable, perhaps, but quietly essential. The architectural equivalent of a load-bearing wall. Not glamorous, but try removing it and see what happens.

Tomorrow will bring whatever it brings. But tonight, the week is one day old and already off to a steady start. That'll do.

Plan for the Week

It was the week before Xmas, when colleagues and patients were away on holidays. The clinics and wards are usually quiet but since I was not celebrating, I would be hanging around the hospital most of the time, covering for colleagues. I could feel things were slowing down since last week and hopefully things would not be so busy as I could do with some chill out time as well.

Morning meeting in AraEarly lunch in BangsarMonday started with a meeting at Ara Damansara, followed by ward round in Subang and clinic later in the afternoon. I have booked for tickets to watch Star Wars with Anita and the boys later this evening and we would be enjoying the time since from Wednesday, our maid would be away until the New Year. Anita was already dreading that.

Coffee after lunchPlanning for the week ...Parents-in-law would still be around with their maid to help Anita about. Dad was still weak and I thought the effect of some of the medicine didn’t quite agree with him. He had been feeling dizzy all morning.

Looking forward to some down time and hopefully some photography ...

Not the Best of Starts

It was a Monday morning. And just before 6, I got a phone call from our ICU to inform me that one of my patient was rapidly deteriorating. I jumped out of bed, changed clothes and drove to the hospital.

No shower. Groggy and hair all over the place. Unfortunately the patient did not make it.

There went my Monday. I went on to do my ward round, followed by a quick procedure before heading back home for a shower after the morning traffic had subsided.

I had the coming weekend off originally planned but changed the plan somewhat after Dad took ill. Maybe I could do with a day or two without clinics and free from the hospital. With the Xmas season coming up, I could see myself spending more time in the hospital doing calls and covering for colleagues who will be away.

Hopefully the rest of the week will go on smoothly ...

Third Ramadan

First day back to work during Ramadan and to be honest, I was feeling rather tired. Luckily I didn’t have many inpatients and my clinic was only in the afternoon. A long list though, and added to that a meeting which would run until after berbuka once it was done.

I had some time in the morning to sort out some reading and go through some emails. Hopefully the rest of the day would be too taxing as well. Idlan is on his midterm and was still enjoying his sleep.

Happy Monday!