Things I learned over the past year

Here are some things that I have learned over the past year — about food, life, and stuff.

  1. Steak is quick and easy to cook and clean up, and tastes so good with the right spices.
  2. One of the perks of working in oncology is the frequent chocolates and fruits that we kindly receive from patients. The best cheesecake I’ve had by far is made by a patient (so good).
  3. What is even more inspiring is how some of the poorer patients give the best gifts — boxes of “high-end” chocolates from the local supermarket for each and every staff member (not a trifle amount), or a good sum of money donated despite their financial circumstances — from the poorer patients.
  4. An hour of walking to the supermarket, shopping, and walking back is worth more than an hour in front of the computer thinking that you are relaxing.
  5. When going out for dinner with colleagues, order an entrée to share with everyone.
  6. Higher octane fuel, although more expensive per litre, works out cheaper as you get more mileage out of it, and the engine is smoother to drive.
  7. Happiness in life is partly related to discipline (the discipline to sleep on time, get stuff done, refrain from certain things etc) — without discipline, life is unbalanced and unhappy.
  8. When motivation is waning and you are questioning whether you should be going to the gym, the answer is yes you should go.
  9. When trying to be frugal in saving up for something, do not forget to be generous in everyday life.
  10. Accidents happen often because things are not put back to where they are supposed be.
11.Feb2012

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Surely there are many more, but here are some of them. Happy 2012 too! (Yes, it is already one month into the new year.)

If you have your tips of wisdom please share too.

Less frequent updates

I have been accepted into RANZCR for Radiation Oncology training. There was a lot of competition for a very limited number of positions, and now I can sigh a big relief, totally by God’s grace.

20.Sep2011

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As you may expect, now on top of my hospital work I have clinical assignments and self-study to do. With a small change in priorities, it is inevitable that I will be updating this blog less often, at least for now. I will definitely still be writing – and I still have many things I want to do! – but I will just be updating less often.

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And then the earthquake struck

When the world was ghastly shook with news of the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 and the earthquake in Sichuan, China in 2008, I counted my blessing to be living in New Zealand, tucked away safely in a tidy corner of Earth’s colonisation.

23.Feb2011

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Many other natural disasters continued to occur throughout the world, of course, and I later crossed the Tasman Sea to move to Australia just after the earthquake in Haiti hit in early 2010. It was then the anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires that licked up a huge part of Victoria the year before. People were recounting the horror stories over radio.

Then the major floods in Queensland happened only a thousand kilometres from where I was staying, followed by Cyclone Yasi sweeping the northern parts of the same state. This time I had actual friends and people whom I knew who were in the area. Cyclone Carlos followed shortly after to hit Darwin in the Northern Territory — and I have only just been to the place earlier in 2010! The photos in the news were scarily familiar — yet now barely recognisable with the flooding, fallen trees and flattened houses on places that I have just stood in not too long ago.

And then the earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand, just yesterday, this time levelling the city area, catching all of us completely off-guard. My two brothers are there, and it was amazing to hear their first-hand experiences of the hospital blacking-out, being evacuated, and the general destruction of the city. It is unthinkable to imagine Christchurch without the century-old landmark buildings now — the day surely is history-changing.

I was flicking through my phone’s text messages when the earthquake happened, and the happy text messages only from a week ago of a friend finally finding a job in Christchurch, and of my brothers inviting me to play a game online together with them, suddenly seemed so distant and irrelevant now. Oh how things can change in a blink of an eye.

It is amazing too how these happenings seem to be getting scarily close both on Earth and in heart — in neighbouring states and in places I have grown up in. It is even more frightening, however, to think of how I can turn my eyes away from the news, walk along streets of Melbourne suburbs and immediately so easily get hypnotised by the calmness here.

I can’t help but to think it is not evitable that a disaster will strike my location one of these days. It almost feels like a guilty conscience! When and how would that be? Would I have a family of my own at that time? Who knows it will come when I least expect it.

It crossed my mind that if someone said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” again, would it make more sense now? It is a crazy time we live in these days, how far is this going to go?

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