"I think that possibly, maybe I'm falling for you... Yes there's a chance that I've fallen quite hard over you,"

 

There's just something soothing about a soft voice singing easily accompanied by the strumming of a guitar. I've played this song over and over about a year ago. And then rediscovered it when it randomly played on my ipod. 

Its been a week since my interview. Been restless waiting for THAT envelope with my name on it to arrive so i can report to duty (sounds like I'm going into the army). The truth is being on holiday is nice. For a short period of time. When it goes on longer than a month, you get restlesss.

No more classes to go to. No more quizzes to take. No more being late to class or tell a friend about that awesome procedure you got to do the hospital. Being in between getting a job and graduating is becoming stale. For me. 

I may complain now. But i know i'll wish for holidays as soon as i start working. 

Ah. The incomplete pointless unsatisfied feeling in us humans.

I'm rambling. 

The video above is titled falling in love at a coffee shop. Coffee, something i have loved for years. Flat white all the way dude :). Since my holidays began, i've been frequenting a few food haunts with friends. 

There was Fat Spoon that i went almost 3x in 2 weeks. But today we decided to look for the awesomely delectable Mille Crepe cake in PJ at Food Foundry.

The crepe cake was exceptionally good and so were the pastas. Mille is "thousand" so Mille crepe is supposedly a thousand layers of crepe with splashes of cream in between the layers to make up one awesome cake.

A slice of cake and good company always makes it better.

" Say what you mean, Tell me I'm right. Give me a sign, I wanna believe,"

 

The Terrace of DeLuna Cafe, Makassar March 2011.

Good morning wednesday. I am somewhat relieved to have gone through my Interview yesterday with less stumble than i had expected.

I'd write a blow-by-blow detailed Interview but then I realize that this might bore you to death. So i'll make it short and as interesting as possible.

Slept over at Huey's the night before to "prepare" the last minute details of what to bring, what to read, and what to wear for our first S.P.A Interview. We dallied between quizzing medical facts and playing Angry birds before we hit the sack at half past midnight. Thankfully mum rang to wake me up at 5.40a.m. so we wouldn't be late to  head to Putrajaya from Damansara.

We met up with Asma at the parking lot and made way into the Interview room. Needless to say it started on time, 8.am and the first numbers were displayed on screen. I was no.11 for my interview room. And staring at the clock between Interviews, running for bathroom breaks every few minutes was exhausting. I blame the nerves. Tummy aches too untill about 10 a.m. When my turn was up, we had gathered some of teh questions that seemed to be repeated or asked of almost all the candidates so i took a deep breath and calmed myself beforeturning the door knob and facing my future employers.

There were two interviewers. One lady who looked like she put on a bit too much make-up, with big hair and wears her golds and jewels proudly around her. And another man in a sharp suit who smiled and asked me to sit. The man was the doctor, and the lady was an officer of S.P.A and turned out not to be as menacing as her looks.

They did the small talk of my background, then graduated to my grades, before starting on the tough questions. My knowledge of the 5-year-medical degree.

"What diseases do you know. Let's start with that." the doctor asked.
Wow. Isnt that a  bit too wide? Then i started with infectious diseases, then thyroid problems, then DM before he stopped me and started getting to the point.

He had found my weak point. Statistical research questions. Percentage of certain cases in Malaysia. Number of cases of CVD's and Tropical diseases in the past year.

There you go. I hadn't read up on that. or i did , but it wasn't anough information. Because i didn't have the numbers he wanted. Thankfully it went okay. He explained what i couldn't answer. And sent me out of the room after 20 minutes. Phew...

At 2.30 pm they let us know that we passed the interview.

Now I'm joyously awaiting my induction letter. Sigh. Work must come.

Is it too soon?

You hit me once, i kick you back

   " A kiss with a fist is better than none.." Florence and the Machines

keeps playing in my head in the lsat 24 hours since i heard it.
isn't it domestic violence in a love story? but the beat is cool.


I've been neglecting my blog again.
Can you blame me? 
Tumblr's so much more.. easier to be lost in.
Also, i believe i have no more ways with words as i once used to.
Can't seem to prepare words to write up a piece even when i feel like i have so much to say.


But here i am.
Writing again. :)


I finally had my graduation on March 24th 2011. I now hold a Medical Degree. which means i am now an M.D.
you know?
Medical Doctor.
Yikes.


I filled in the necessary forms, applied for the hospitals i think are good and close for my two years of housemanship
and now all i've been doing is waiting.
The Interview (oooh!) will be on the 12th of April. That's 3 days away.
An my preparation for it?


Lots of reading up. Which i have failed to do. 
I hope when i'm done writing this i'll log out and actually do some reading.
Ran 2km on the treadmill this morning (my new aspiration to keep fit)
drank a cup pf coffee.
so hopefully nothing will put me to sleep in the next 12 hours at least :p.


Okay folks. The doctor has got to get back to the books. :)


The doctor. Tee hee.
     

There and Back Again

no, this is no Hobbit's tale.


Although at my height, there may be some possibilities, and the fact that i have big..no wide feet?..ok that's not the point. Its the New Year :) .
2011.

And naturally a lot of things have happened since my last post. Good things. a lot of good things. Looking at the sidebar of things i wanted to achieve by the end of 2010? Glad to say i scratched out most with gusto.
To start things off, how was your NYE? I spent mine at home, very quietly sleeping. hehe. yeay, no excitement there. I fell asleep between 10 to 11 watching fireworks outside my house. But i did have a new Year's Day barbecue with my friends :) we shopped, cleaned and cooked our way through a lot of sea creatures and added in some Italian choices for the menu. After dinner, we played fireworks and a game of monopoly before we retired around 10pm. woot! we play hard don't we?

Did i mention that i'm done? I'm done with being a medical student?
yep. Finished.
I've graduated to being a real life doctor now.
wow.
Feels cheesy saying it.
I think other people should say i'm a doctor. I feel cheesy.
....
....
No, I'm actually really happy and proud of myself for going through 5 and 1/2 years of medical education to grant a title with a much bigger responsibility to humanity than i could ask for.
I still can't believe I'm a doctor.
    Nadiah Alwi. M.D


And yes, i am still in Makassar Indonesia.
Had my oath-taking in the last days of December.
None of my family member was there though because everything was so last minute, and rushed. I only knew i could join the oath-taking ceremony the day before, so you see, i only told my parents on the day itself.

 

Among the 30 that took the oath with us, 5 of us decided to run to a photo studio and get snapped. In our gear. It was one of the most fun  I had. Free from worry.

So this post, that i'm writing here, is just to tell you, i graduated :)

Mum and Dad, this was for you. Alhamdulillah. 

Cambodia - Kemboja Part 2

Siem Reap

The Khmer or Angkor Civilization came into existence during the period from 802  to 1431 A.D. and stretched as far as the modern Thailand-Burma Border in the West and Wat Phou of Laos in the North during its peak.

Its emergence lies in the fact that the ancient Khmer rulers adopted a right political doctrine of its time, which enforce the unity among people. Moreover, they had developed an intelligent irrigation system to control the water of the great Mekong River for agricultures, which enhanced its prosperity.  The Khmer Civilization had long been perished over 5 centuries ago, but it left outstanding monuments such as the great Khmer temples of Angkor Wat and Bayon and numerous unique sculptures like Apsara.

The word "Angkor" is derived Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, of "Nagara" which means "City".  Angkor Wat literally means "City of Temple" and Angkor Thom "The Magnificent City".

The drive to Siem reap, was for as long as 8-hours (reminded me of our good old annual Hari Raya KL-Kelantan drive). It was bumpy, long but scenic. In which case i noticed there were NO CATS to be seen. Weird. 3 days in cambodia and not a single cat? 


Theory: 
Cambodians eat cats.


The above theory was supported by my fellow traveller who said that he had a cambodian neighbor who took in all the stray cats and made soup. aaaaaaa. no way!


anyway..the drive was scenic, and long. and filled with temples from left to right. there were exactly 245 temples in between those 8 hours. we counted. 
Siem Reap was bautiful. it was small, clean, and filled with four-five star hotels. It reminded me of Luang Prabang. where there were many tourists, but no night pubs. everythig was serene and cooler thn Phnom Penh.

I immediately fell for this place. did i say it was clean and immaculate?


So we went to see the Angkor. Not just the Angkor Wat, we saw the Elephant terrace, we climbed up into the Angkor Bayon and Ta Phrom. You know, where Angelina did her Tomb Raider thing.


To describe it is as difficult as it was to xplore it. To enter the Angkor, you have to purchase a ticket. It can be a one day ticket or a one week ticket. or even a one month ticket.


To xplore the whole Wat by foot on a day ticket was suicide. I mentally opted for the bicycle route only to find out that you have to rent the bike in town, and then cycle to Angkor, and inside Angkor itself. so, scratch that! Bus ride it is with the rest of the tour group. 


Our tour guide, was awesome! Mr Tan, whom i thought was a chinese Malaysian, but was actually a local Cambodaian told great stories. I mean history. yeah.
We only had a day and a half in Siem Reap, so we made the most of one day in Angkor. and the rest of the half day xploring the other options.


1. Silk worm factory!
2. Tonle Sap river boat ride.


If you dont know what Tonle Sap is. pls google and shame on your geography teacher.


those 2 i shall write about in the next entry. :D

Cambodia - Kemboja

 Phnom PenH

   I had a dream of conquering SouthEast Asia on my travels. When i say conquer i dont mean wars and spilled blood. I meant, of the educational leisure kind. :) It is my own country's back-yard. And so since 2009 i have checklisted the countries i've stepped in.

Laos, Vietnam and Singapore. Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar was still part of another plan (Granted that when my family roamed in bangkok, i was the only one left alone at home for my friends had planned an awesome surprise 16th birthday party for me :D ).

And in June, i finally made it to Cambodia, the famous world-heritage site of the oldest buddhist monument; The Angkor-Wat.  

Here is a view of the capital, Phnom Penh from the MAS 3-hour flight i took.

Arriving in Phnom Penh on my own, i took the first cab into the city which was about a 30-minute drive towards the hotel mum was staying at: Swiss inn. It was Malaysian owned and the only hotel crawling with Malaysians! (contributed by the fact that it served only halal food which was hard to find in this city). 

settling in, as mum was busy with her seminar, i joined her young-minded colleagues and her student in exploring the city. First stop was the royal palace. 

A brief history of Cambodia and the Khmer people for those who were ignorant of our Malay roots as well as combined east-asia culture like myself (sighs):

Cambodia is a country in South East Asia, less than half the size of California and twice the size of Scotland. Once it was the centre of the ancient kingdom of the Khmer, and its capital was Angkor, famous for its 12th century temples. The present day capital is Phnom Penh. In 1953 Cambodia gained independence after nearly 100 years of French rule. In the 1960s the population was over 7m, almost all Buddhists, under the rule of a monarch, Prince Sihanouk.

    I thought going to the royal palace, i might catch a glimpse of the royal Prince! but no such luck, we were however greeted by a giant portrait of Her Majesty the Queen. In my minds eye i was wondering what Queen Elizabeths photo was doing out here? And then the tuk-tuk driver told us that i was wrong. The portrait was of the Queen of Cambodiaa, Queen Monineath of the French lineage who resembles the British ruler down to a T. Though recalling i thing Queen M is pretty hot. haha.

   Anyway, we took the royal tour, and then walked along the Tonle Sap lake across the palace. It reeked. I guess its the same as Italy's waterways as they say. Photos can deceive u. just remember not to breathe in too long :)

Along the riverfront there were vendors selling flowers, in coconut vases! as well as insence sticks for us to vurn n pray. But most of all there were so many vendors selling fried creepy crawlies. Its similar to waht you might find in Thailand, but they smelled delicious though. But takng a second look my stomach turned and we settled for photo snapping instead. :)

Phnom Penh wasnt making too big an impression on me, so we decided to check out the all day market to feast on some shopping possibilities. Like any market; you can find bags, clothes, caps, food, shawls and the cambodian silk in every nook and cranny. Other wares include silver, bangles and jewelleries made of the local stones (which were awesomely cheap!)> Everything is negotiable and sells mostly in USD rather than Cambodian Riyal. But a majority of the Cambodians know Malay words, and take RM too!

There were calls of "Kakak, Abang, sini murah murah. cantik cantik," "tak mahal,"

which made us smile. AAh the comfort and hospitality of Asians :D.

English is easily understood though not really spoken. They do however excel at french. Wow! Being the cheapskate student traveller that i am. I bargained with the lowest prices and was answered by mostly laughs and shooaways by shop owners but the few that fell for my smile and childish bargaining (hahahah.) gave in to some low low prices (T-shirts was less than USD 1. thanks!)

2 Days in Phnom penh was just us walking around the city to see the sights and night market for food and shop. I couldnt wait for the bus ride to Siem Reap. The city of Angkor.

Life made out of cut-outs and memories

The photos as promised. :)

Zaznuriah Zahir & Hashley Tajuddin

                       
                                         

Nurfarissa Hussin & Rushdan Anuar

Gorgeous Garden Wedding

  To both my gorgeoud friends and their husbands :) who we have known for years as well; congratulations and may both newlyweds have the best of future, in love, life and everything in between.Alhamdulillah ;)