and my heart goes boom!

heart function clinic today.

run by the extremely nice and good(-looking) dr petrie.

seriously, if i were an ah ma in heart failure,
my LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction) would dramatically improve the minute i see him.

backs my theory that not only is laughter the best medicine, eye candy helps. alot.


so many people with heart failure in scotland.
(no) thanks to their smoking.

40sticks a day and still dont want to quit.
rather die than quit.
ask the doctor to do whatever he can to make the heart pump better, but still refuse to quit.

sometimes i feel like just telling them that the heart failure is all their fault and they should stop expecting doctors to find quick-fix solutions.
and really, if you smoke and you get COPD/heart failure/lungtonguethroat cancer,
you deserve it.
cos the consequences have been spelt out so nicely, yet you still choose to do it.


photos from our trip to the botanic gardens

just off byres road. near where we stay.
so we took a leisurely walk there before dinner one weekday evening.

so many damn plants in there.
was very tempted to steal borrow some of their garlic, lemongrass and spring onions for our dinner.

they even have a tropical greenhouse in there!
even got the humidity down pat.
felt like i was back in singapore in there.


gorgeous place nonetheless.

inside one of their greenhouses

dome of the greenhouse

so many pretty flowers!

attempted murder in cacti land

no sweat.

the weather was fab today.

good enough to go for a run!

round kelvingrove park,

nearly died on the slope up university avenue,
down byres road.

past somerfields,

too winded to attempt botanical gardens
(which is a pretty place btw)
then back home.

wind in my hair; on my face. no sweat.

ran until the insides of my thighs were raw from rubbing against my scratchyscratchy trackpants. no sweat.
panting like a maniac when i got back. but still no sweat.

2weeks of mabel's fabulous deep-fried (!!!) doughnuts,
muller's yoghurt on alternate days

tesco's strawberry cheesecake
sitting on my bigfat bum learning how to knit.

turns me into a lump of lard that can't even handle a 30min run

argharghargh

andijustdiscoverediputonFREAKING2kgtoday!

:(

sunday's child...

... is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

which was what i was on sunday when we went to The Barras!


The Barras is Glasgow's very own local flea market. with (an advertised) 1000 and more stalls selling just about anything and everything.

abit like singapore's sungei market. but bigger.
muchmuch bigger.

fantastic treasure trove of dingdongs/knick-knacks, antique bone china bowls, dusty porcelain plates, princess diana memorabilia, even old spectacles.
basically anything they can find in their homes, they sell.
my mum will seriously love this place.

picked up a couple of great finds.
one of them being this gorgeous piece of madeinengland wedgwood - for only 4quid!
*manymany smiles

probably going back there again the following sunday
and see what more i can unearth.

and also because i need to replenish my diminishing stock of 10-for-a-quid chocolate eggs.
marvelous chocolate eggs with gooey toffee+truffle centers.
keeps me happy through the week.

(now why don't they make stuff like tt back home?!)

and that, is the end of our edinburgh story

first things first:

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to my mummy!!!!

so this weekend we go to edinburgh again

first on our agenda, carlton hill.

hill with manymany monuments remembering scotland's greats

massive half-finished colosseum (think they ran out of funds)

atop carlton

jess mounts her canon

then we visit edinburgh university

and it's medical school's famed wall of doctors:
doctors that gave us addison's disease/hodgkin's lymphoma

man, i so want to graduate

Reid Concert Hall; Museum of Musical Instruments

jess gets abit high at the sight of so many violins

We take a (nauseating) half-hour bus ride to Roslin.
home of Rosslyn Chapel.

rosslyn chapel

the amazing chapel featured in the da vinci code.
very easy to see why.

small chapel (abit anti-climatic cos i expected to see a massive exterior work of art after how much it has been hyped-up by the media and the movie. i didn't watch the movie)
but every inch of it's interior is covered with carvings.

ceiling to pillar to floor. all carved.

freaking amazing carvings
these were all over the chapel
(photos not allowed; managed to sneak one in before i kena scolded)

the handiwork of the masons that sculpted this chapel is so fantastically intricate
even the tiniest of details are not missed out, right down to the tinytiny veins on the leaves.

chapel exterior

prior to rosslyn chapel, we had actually gone on a walk around the small town of roslin itself.
chapel was booked from 2.30-4.00 for a wedding, so we could only come back after 4pm.

roslin is just a very sleepy town. it's main buzz comes from the manymany tourists wanting to take a peek at the much hyped-about chapel.

out of sheer nothing-to-do-ness, we stumble onto a trail into roslin glen:

roslin glen

we have our lunch on the grass by the river

picnic by the river :)

coats swinging in the breeze

we venture into what used to be roslin castle (now a holiday home for some rich people)

goof around
before heading back to the chapel.

another (nauseating) ride back into edinburgh

and we walk smack into one of their haps flea market!
rows and rows of stalls selling hot buttered sausages, piles of smelly cheese, all sorts of knick-knacks.

jess goes crazy over 2 for 10quid necklaces, while my roving eye catches this:

can't take my eyes off you... :)

"The holy grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits.
The blade and chalice guarding o'er her gates.
Adorned in masters' loving art, she lies.
She rests at last beneath the starry skys."

one and a half weeks.
and im getting into the swing of things

cardiology has been a super learning experience.
the doctors here have been nothing short of inspiring.
and nice. very nice.
i don't feel like scum of the earth here.

patient load is not fantastic, and the working pace is kind of slow.
but im not complaining, when i get doctors who patiently take you through each and every patient, explain the purpose of the procedure and not make sarcastic disparaging remarks when you ask stupid questions.

been sharing prof rankin with about 7 other elective students from glasgow med.
they get to elective modules like us as well - student-selected modules (SSM).

students here really get by on alot of initiative.
theyre opinionated, outspoken and really on-the-ball.
something i'm seriously lacking in the personality department.
working on that.

got to run my own chest pain clinic just the other day.
nearly got a panic attack when dr martin handed me my first stack of notes and told me to take a room and see the patient.
by myself. *sweat

didn't know if i was writing the case notes correctly, didn't know my history-taking was thorough enough, if i missed out an important step in examining the patient.
what if i missed out an important sign and the patient goes home and dies the next day?!?
(it's amazing, really, the number of stupid paranoid thoughts that can run through my tinytiny brain)

but, after that it became fun.
derived alot of joy from talking to the patients, flipping through their notes, getting to know not just their medical problem, but them,
as people. with their own quirks, anecdotes and stories.

kind of brought me back to the good old days when i was dead certain of why i wanted to do medicine.

plus i got to listen to some kickass cardiac murmurs!

so all has been good. :)
just waiting for the weather to get better!

"he who holds stirling, holds scotland"

river forth

sunday we go to prettypretty Stirling

first through the old town (not very old)

enroute to the castle, we stop by the church of the holy rude, where james VI, son of mary queen of scots, was crowned king

stained glass

to the castle!

tapestry

then to argyll's lodging

off the beaten track to find the beheading stone,

which we didnt find.

we find tellytubby land instead.
green green grass and flowers so bright they look fake.

we cross the old bridge of stirling.

old bridge, stirling

lunch @ corrieri's
fantastic pasta

(william) wallace monument

disgustingly narrow and winding steps.

3 of us, breathless

(ruins of) cambuskenneth abbey

enroute to cambuskenneth abbey

long live the queen!

the weekend in pictures:
(and some words)

We go up to Edinburgh on Saturday.

We walk the Royal Mile.

tried some fantastic scotch whisky
bought more marmalade&jams

900kg beauty ;)

visit a kilt factory

oh, the curiousity gets to me...

EDINBURGH CASTLE

long live the queen!
birthday weekend means everything in historic scotland is free!

£11 but we go in free!
so happy we behave like children under 5.
the queen rocks.

lunch at monster mash at the recommendation of marvin's friend.
tried haggis. on a mound of mashed potatoes.
got sick of it.

don't think i'll ever eat it again.

we stumble upon "the elephant house"

where jkrowling first wrote harry potter

and excitedly take pictures.

at this point in time, my camera decided to die on me

so no more photos until i get them from aishu.

we attempt arthur's seat (old volcanic plug in edinburgh) in the light drizzle.

steep inclines, mossy vertical stone cliffs and gorgeous views of edinburgh.

more updates soon!

the out-of-sun syndrome

i hatehatehate it here.

the cold.
the time difference.
the lousy creaky mattress.
the fact that i can't snack to make myself happy(er) cos chocolates cost like 40p apiece.

even the stupid dog that runs around the house.
sometimes i just feel like strangling it even though all it does is just sit there, innocently look at me and beg for food.

not to mention,
the inefficient company that calls itself BeeA is still holding on to my lost luggage.
they are so going to pay.

my gums are swollen and i feel like an ulcer is coming up.

i need vitamin d. stat.

i miss home so badly i want to cry.

took a walk down to the city center with aish after school today.

down from the royal (infirmary), past strathclyde uni, to george's square and right smack into buchanan street!

george's square is literally one huge square in the middle of town, with manymanymany pigeons and busy office workers taking a fag break or a quick bite out of their gregg's lunch bags.

george's square

buchanan street is one solid pedestrain walkway of side-to-side shops.
buskers, beggars, buggers (pesky survey-takers)
all there.

i seriously like the architecture here.

didn't take many photos cos my fingers were frozen stiff and i couldn't really bear to take them out of my pocket to reach for my camera in my bag.

my favourite sighting of the day:

:)