eat, drink and be merry

and sleep and watch tv!

all. day. long.

but as cliched as it is, all good things must come to an end. and that end is exactly one week from now when i have to once again endure 14 hours of flight (which does not include travelling to and from KLIA and Manchester airport) to begin a gruelling and horrendously long 4th year of medical school.

i am so glad i had an amazing summer back home. it's exactly what i needed - laid back and medicine-free, with good company, food and almost-24-hour tv. yes i'm a tv and couch potato. so what.

i did however take my butt off the couch and my eyes off the tv to have a fantastic weekend in KL to re-live IMU times with tr, howai, adrian and ben. we went around eating, of course, and tried a new place for drinks called Hakka Republic (the name seriously does not do the place justice) in the heart of the city. man, do i really miss IMU!

pics taken over the weekend (courtesy of howai):

it is unbelievably difficult to get decent southwestern food in the UK. i kid you not. hence the need for my mushroom jack fajitas at chili's!

then we went for drinks at the aforementioned Hakka Republic, which has virtually no elements of the Hakka clan except for this poster of what seems to be Chairman Mao? no idea if he was even Hakka. when howai suggested we went to try out Hakka Republic, i admit to being really pissed off because 1) i hate hakka food, and 2) i thought it would be a lame ah-beng place. but i was wrong. :)

the place is smacked right in the city, providing a nice view from the 2nd floor of menara hap seng. they actually have a French fine-dining restaurant and a wine/champagne bar. Hakka what?!

i ordered a frozen rose margarita which turned out really tasteless. then i figured that they messed up my order and gave me a normal frozen margarita. angry. normal margarita also cannot make.

howai and ben had bellinis, which i really should've ordered! they didn't bill the both of them so they had RM70 worth of bellinis for free. unfair!

also met up with eli, grace and their friend tricia.

the ultimate ramly burger for supper! from the stall outside 7 eleven in sri petaling. best. in. the. world. this is my usual burger ayam special tak mau bawang! (used to be tak mau sos cili mau sos tomato but i have evolved to actually like chilli sauce now...)

the next day: chilli pan mee at madam chiam's in cheras. i know i know you're like eh why never go kin kin blablabla. truth is i really prefer madam chiam's.

then we decided to rest our stomachs and went to kamal to get our medical books and then to book xcess in amcorp (they've moved to a much bigger and nicer lot - impressive!), before proceeding to bangsar to have banana leaf rice at nirwana's! people who say nirwana sucks shouldn't be allowed to roam the earth. seriously.

yummy sotong goreng.

hanging out at BVII's starbucks. GOSH I MISS IMU LIFE! this is what we used to do. always.

AND THEN! we went all the way to subang SS14 to have bak kut teh at ah ping.

dry bak kut teh. best.

ate everything clean. ;)

what a great weekend! shame we didn't get to eat more but we covered most things? this will be our annual summer routine!

in ipoh, i've eaten/eaten at:

- jap food
- korean food
- vietnamese food
- hakka mee under the tree
- ah tuck chee cheong fun
- funny mountain tau fu fah
- oversea restaurant
- foh san dim sum
- stadium banana leaf rice
- lotus roti canai, roti planta, thosai, thosai tissue, roti telur
- salted chicken
- kai si hor fun
- chicken rice
- pohpiah
- ais kacang
- rojak
- seafood

ohmygod lah too many to list down. oh i also went to penang and ate char koay teow, prawn mee, penang poh piah, lor bak...

and also to bidor to eat wan tan mee.

i've still got one more week to stuff myself and satisfy that stomach for the entire year. and then i'm back to roast chicken, potatoes, fish & chips and other stupid food.

almost

hello. i've been back in malaysia tanah airku for 2 1/2 weeks now. i can't say this often enough: nothing beats home - the food, the comfort, the family, the friends, the dogs, the TV, all the free time...

ultimate bliss.

somehow even though i've had one hell of a year in the UK, it just feels as though i never left home.

i can't believe the year has passed by so quickly. i've had so many new experiences, made new friends and seen new places. i've learned and done much more than i could ever imagine, although i am pretty upset about how i ended 3rd year of medical school merely as an average student. there were many so-near-yet-so-far moments (like missing the Honours point by one miserable mark, and getting an Above Average for my SSC which i honestly deserved an Excellent for) that many a time made me feel like hitting my head with a piece of rock, because if i had just gone the extra inch (not even a mile), i would have at least completed my year on an impressive high.

that said, i suppose i should be counting my blessings and realise that although results are important, they are only what's written on paper. in the end, it is virtually impossible for me to graduate with an MBChB Honours* (because very few people do, and i am obviously not part of the creme de la creme huhuhu), so it really doesn't matter what my results are as long as i pass. it is the actual experience and knowledge that i've gained throughout the year that keep me in check that i am on the right track. i really don't want to just pass, i want to be competent at what i do. and after the year, i can be sure i am on my way.

i guess God has been kind to me. i just hope that 4th year will be just as good or even better.

* manchester medical school has an Honours programme in which we need to collect 7 Honours points (one point must be collected in the 5th year finals) to graduate with Honours. it doesn't actually matter because in medicine you either graduate or you don't, but you have to admit having an Honours next to your name does look pretty good! plus it does spice up your CV. i obviously won't graduate with Honours but it's nice to collect as many Honours points as i can for self-satisfaction!

homeless

i've decided that i don't want to stay in this country long-term, possibly not even if i get the job of my dreams. the ways in which they get things done here (banking, housing, uni admin, etc) are just purely absurd and they don't aim to help you. in medical school they stress on how to "EMPHATISE" with patients. i say why only in med school and not in normal everyday life? i hate that they have no sense of urgency and a lack of understanding on what the other end has to go through.

and because of their ridiculously nonchalant attitudes, i am going to be homeless after my summer break. yay.