Quiet Start

I was sure things would get hectic soon enough but it had been quiet this morning. With the CNY around the corner and KL celebrating Hari Wilayah - SJMC is in Selangor hence no holiday - things were certainly quite.

I only have a clinic this afternoon and after sorting out my ward round this morning it wasn't even 10 am yet. I have some business to sort out at the bank and Anita was at home. Maybe I should take her for breakfast...

Life Goes On

Sunday today and the atmosphere in the cancer ward was still down after the event on Friday. I didn't have any patients there - my cancer patients were parked in another ward this weekend.

Walking back to the car park after my ward round I had a quick peek outside. The sun was out. Life goes on. The mood will be subdued in the coming few days, but I was sure we would move on by the time the Chinese New Year break was over....

Good Night Sir

The passing of Dr Ahmad Kamal was felt at all levels at SJMC. The kindest of colleague, always jovial and knew when to press the right button. Very welcoming when I started off in Subang back in 2011.

My Facebook feed was filled with throwback photos of the smiling gentleman and even towards the end, all he thought about was coming back to work. His patients, colleagues and nurses held him in highest regard and we will continue to cherish the memories.

On a personal note, I first met Dr Kamal in 2006 when myself with Dr No Soo Chin and Dr Alan Teh attended a research course in Sabah. We went for a nice seafood dinner one evening, just the four of us. And half a decades later, we were colleagues in Subang.

His passing would also meant that I had to step up and put up the bill for the yearly Cancer Centre berbuka puasa event that he hosted with Dr Matin Mellor every year. We also felt amongst the Doctors that we should rename the Cancer Centre in Subang in his honour. After all, he helped set the unit up.

From now on, it looked like it would be only me using a fountain pen in Surgical A North Tower - at least until somebody else decided to join in. We used to talk about his own collection and his professed love for Audi. I was sure he would be sorely missed by his wonderful family.

Alfatihah.

New Toll Arrangement

The queue at the toll booth on my way to work yesterday was longer than usual. The fact that I had a couple of clinic s that day - the morning at Park City and the afternoon back in Subang - meant that I was in a slight rush in the morning.

It turned out that the NPE - New Pantai Expressway - had gotten rid of cash paying booth. All the road user had to use electronic payment - Touch and Go - to pass through. Those who hasn't, would have to purchase them at some of the lanes. Hence the long queue.

I didn't have any problem since I had always been using the SmarTag. But I was caught in the wait.

The situation got a bit better this morning, probably because everybody had wise update to the fact. The added advantage for such system was the top-up booth were opened 24 hours. Made the job of topping-up the card that much easier.

Real Start to 2016

The New Year had really kicked-off now after a nice few days off work. Did my first call last night but it had been kind. I managed to get some sleep. And I woke up refreshed this morning for the first real clinic for the year.

Today being Friday also meant my weekly walk from to the mosque, and the weather was searing today. I was drenched when I finally arrived back to the hospital for my afternoons rounds.

And it was followed by a meeting which took me to early evening. And then I was out again with the boys for our customary Friday night out.