Just came back from BTN in Ulu Kenas yesterday. Thanks Adeline for the info. It was actually not bad. My friend who attended BTN in Langkawi said there was a lot of brainwashing and the trainers were very strict. The ones who handled mine were reasonable and just a lot of talk on how we should be thankful we live in Malaysia, why unity is so important etc. Abseiling was not as scary the second time round (we did it during induksi as well) and the kembara was fun (haven't gone jungle trekking in a long time). I got camp A, which is older than Camp B. The first day I arrived was quite dreary as it rained heavily, but subsequently the surrounding greenery was indeed refreshing. I also attended with juniors so some advice to those who haven't attended: Go before you find yourself one of the most senior participants there.
Some news updates. Cheah has passed his Part 2B MRCP. Rebecca is getting married on 3rd December. She surprised me with a wedding invitation through sms. She's now working as a lecturer in IMU and doing research on drugs to fight cancer.
Good luck to all you guys who applied for masters.

yikes! tat was fast, well, as for psy, the interview is by conjoint board so usually it is in jan.

anyway, just came back from yap's wedding, so here is the update:
was really nice to meet up with the rest of gang.
just to update ppl on the where abouts of those around (just in case anyone need any "expert opinion")
kb (ENT, Klang), kwan long (skin, GHKL), yee siang (onco, GHKL), ys lee (med, klang, n all the best in ur coming exam!) tong ming (ane, klang), lee ding (batu gajah hosp), teck choon (med, ipoh), ngou (ent, sg petani) carren (ent seremban)

n teck choon jr. is soooo cute.
n had a road trip to bagan lalang after the wed lunch, it was a nice trip, thanks guys! too bad yee siang n kwan long had to left after seafood dinner, next day went to stop by tg sepat... well, it was a refreshing holiday.

got so fast/ early meh...?
dun think i heard anyone went interview yet lo
usually it is the typical govt speed wan...last minute wan....in fact....in may, they inform u just 2 weeks prior to the entry into uni...so for ppl like me, have to dash and fly back to KL lo....siao wan...
jan interview usually...

i heard some ppl who applied masters for surgery and neurosurgical in USM got called up for interview. anyone here got called up? not much blogging activity ya? guess everyone's just busy or tired. on call tomorrow myself. keep ur fingers crossed for me....

no news is good news, well, guess everyone is busy with work. for those who r goin south for yap wedding, c u all there!

seok hong, i went to ulu kenas for BTN with yan wei last year.
plenty of singing wawasan 2020 song.
the ppl (ex commandos) there are nice though they try to project a tough, no nonsense image. i enjoyed it more than my induksi.
however, be careful about the food. my group found flies' eggs in our fish. so look before u eat, however hungry u may be. oh, 5 meals a day. gotta wake up early but for non muslims, later.
be sure to wear PLAIN white top and dark pants/long skirt cos u may get comments otherwise.no flowery business.
you'll like the abseilling (not sure how to spell it). though yanwei said i looked green just before i jumped-darn scared of heights.nice waterfall there but we're not allowed to play there-many drowning incidents.
surroundings are beautiful, hope u get camp B which is higher up and can walk pass waterfall often.
bring mosi repellent.got separate bathrooms so no need to mandi berkemban.

what is everyone else up to?
its been so quiet.
by the way, i've gotten addicted to the show "so u think u can dance".
anyone else watching this??

Alas, we do not know what was running through our O&G colleagues' minds when they knew the mother was carrying 5 fetuses. My specialist asked the same question as well. When the news of the quintuplets came to us, the mother was already in labour. I personally think it would've been kinder to terminate 2 of the fetuses and let the other 3 have a higher chance of surviving till near term but I don't know whether it is illegal to do so.

Anyway, I'm going for BTN in Ulu Kenas, Perak. Any of you been there?

seok hong: just wondering, how come they didn't reduce the quintuplets to maybe triplets to increase survival rates of the others? do we do it in malaysia? i've never had quintuplets in sban before so not sure of th protocol.

Was on call on Deepavali, 1st, 3rd and 5th day of Raya. Damn tired. You guys must have also heard about the quintuplets. Sad that we couldn't save even one of them. The last one deteriorated on the day I was on call. On top of that, we had a set of triplets and another set of twins. It's been multiple pregnancy week in Alor Setar. Our chronic ventilated patients in PICU also decided to turn bad during the long break. Luckily the quintuplets came out on a working day so that a few of us could stand by at once. It was chaotic in OT and NICU but at least we were a bit prepared. Too prem at 26 weeks and too small. Wish we could have saved at least one of them for the parents' sake.

Happy deepavali and selamat hari raya to those who celebrate!
Was on call over the deepavali weekend and only 4 people broke their noses and one broken ear!
hip hip hooray!
of course one of the broken nose also had broken his zygoma, maxilla and mandible. All because he was trying to hit his wife during his drinking bouts and was pushed to the ground by his son.

Happy deepavali and Selamat Hari Raya to those celebrating.

And good luck to all those doing calls over the long holidays

add me to the list of ambivalent people, yet dumb enuf to hand in the form...

to master or not to master
that is the question

submitted application already
am sure that i will regret during the masters programme itself - that is, if i get it...

paper chase - guilty as charged

Master advert out today. Can check in today's NST or Berita Minggu. Can start applying online via www.mohe.gov.my
Good luk to all

finally got my confirmation, after numerous calling up to putrajaya. well, not necessary to get transfer with or without confirmation, just apply for places short of staff, n u wil get sent. yet to do btn also, no black n white sayin tat must do rite.. tryin to evade as much as possible... n stil ambivalent on doin master this year.....

Guess what guys? I just went for my induksi. Yup, after 3 years in service. I had mine in a hotel in Sg. Petani. Attended with all the juniors. Went with low expectations after hearing all the stories from those who went before me. But it turned out to be all right (except for the exam of course). Tiring but not as hectic as I thought. Food was great. (I heard stories of how at one induksi, the same food was served over and over again). We didn't have a lot of variety each meal but different food was served almost everyday. We also had steamboat and barbecue dinner. The team building was fun. We also had repelling and flying fox. I hear not all centres have these facilities. My induksi only lasted for 12 days. And have yet to attend BTN. Organisers say they are having one in November and all of us who went for the induksi this time will get to go. Hope my head of department releases me.
Hear that we will know our results after one month but the paperwork for confirmation takes 1 - 1 1/2 years to settle. So, guess I won't be able to apply for Masters soon. The other thing is, they say it's easier to get transfer after being confirmed. Thinking of a change of environment since have been at same hospital since housemanship.

hi adeline,
no star spangled banner....
PTK 1? i heard that it's not easy...but i think should get over and done with it as soon as possible...good luck to you...tell us all bout it after that....sejarah/ wawasan/ tonggak bla blah.....

first thing i did on this glorious merdeka day is to watch O....prah .....discussing on craniopagus parasiticus (?? wat der....?) tell me....what could me more interesting than that!

i've called siti rokiah many times. probably can get hold of her like 20% of the time. it's quite frustrating cos she will be just saying the thing was sent to spa n gotta call those guys there yadda yadda. by the way, she's a new girl if that gives anyone any further comfort.
apparently its not 2 weeks. the spa bunch needs 1 month to process the thing. my stuff's been in KKM since late july. got myself a confirmation date verbally told by some spa guy but no paper. equals zero progress.

my HR clerk has put me up for PTK 1. Hmmm....
anyone got any idea what we gotta read for that?
pls advice.
Happy Merdeka! remember to fly those stripes!

yes, getting our confirmation done is a hassle and they say waiting time to see dr is bad!

i'm sure by now, most of us have done our induction. after getting the certs, proper surat aku janji, med check-up and surat pengesahan lantikan jawatan, these set of papers will be sent to your state office which will make a cover letter and send it to KKM who will send it to SPA with another cover letter. And should u any time find a delay and ask them how's the progress, they will pick little problems in it and shift the blame to other ppl to cover their inadequecies.

Anyhow, in KKM, the person in charge now is cik siti rokiah. in SPA, there r different ppl in charge for different files. So, no specific names.

Yes, by choosing pencen scheme, we fall under another protocol where they process our pencen scheme applications and confirmation together hence the delay since like in my case, i got my forms signed before i completed 3 years. i had to send down the form back personally due to the lacking of knowledge in the management side.

well, good news is once u have the above forms sent to kkm and spa, they will each take 2 wks to process and should be sending back the documents on your confirmation. unfortunately, as our putrajaya is somewhere in bermuda triangle, postmen there have much difficulty travelling in and out of that zone.

till then, we can only pray for the brave postmen who are fighting part of the battle for us!

(alan went to putrajaya and has not heard frm him since. that was 2 weeks ago)

hi ppl,
i'm changing my e mail add to adechensm@yahoo.com. cant stand reactivating my hotmail account over n over again.
i heard alan got into HKL. is that true? why's he so silent? crushed by the workload?