Friday, December 31, 2004
Motions are only passed in Parliament
The two most memorable lines of my year were spoken last night, and this morning respectively.
1) En-route to the bar on top of the Westin Stamford, the elevator stopped at the 69th storey.
Me : Ooh. Look, the 69th! Shall we get off at 69?
Friend : groan
Nobody else got the joke.
2) This morning, while seeing a pleasant English Geriatric (patient)
Registrar : Have you passed motion today?
English Patient : Motions are only passed in Parliament.
*****
Feel
I've been meaning to write about the Earthquake / Tsunami Tragedy for the longest time. And I still mean to. But right now, in my post-prandial state pre-bed and what with being on-call AGAIN after just doing one thursday, now is not the time.
Suffice to say that it was a terrible, terrible thing to happen and thousands of people are suffering in the aftermath - and they are the lucky ones, who survived.
I can't help but wonder at how lucky Singapore was to escape the effects of a three meter wave sweeping six kilometers inland with devastating force. And then spreading further northwards.
That would have been simply devastating.
*****
See
Did anyone else realise that just in front of that horrible Silkpro Monstrosity sitting on Orchard Road (that's right, they have a giant christmas tree called the Silkpro Celebration Tree) there is an outdoor skating rink?
It ends 2nd Jan 05.
Bugger. Typically, found out about it today and am on call tomorrow. I really wanted to give it a spin.
*****
Recall
Reading a friend describe her hiatus from Bloggerworld with the choice phrase "trying hard to resuscitate a lost persona" I couldn't help but think back to yesterday.
The feel of warm blood on my bare hands as I squeezed down hard on a rather-stiff ambu-bag, running on in autopilot. I didn't switch into lead role since there were so many seniors present, which in retrospect perhaps I should have - for just a moment things weren't as organised as they could have been. I just grabbed the ambu-bag, tried to get a seal, and squeezed. A me from another time would have pushed the senior at the head of the bed out of the way to get a better seal, till someone was ready to intubate for-real. A me from another time might even have lost his temper because the adrenaline and atropine weren't arriving quickly enough.
The me today, this me that lives in this strange land we call home is slowly being beaten into submission and silence, and conformity - to what everyone else thinks of you, to what the right role, as you see fit in your head is to play, is.
The me today just squeezed on his ambu bag, and felt rather sad that this woman was going to die.
*****
Forget
His finger wavered over the button, but, as always he couldn't hit "OK".
He put his phone away in his pocket - sometime later, in retrospect, he wondered if perhaps subconsciously he left the message on it, in its pre-sent form, just in case...
... someone called. And he automatically the OK button.
And so the message that never was, became.
*****
Speak
Happy New Year, world. Hope you're all having a great time hitting the bubbly, in a suitably sombre way befitting of a post regional-apocalypse catastrophy. I can just imagine everyone at Zouk right now, hanging their heads and shuffling their feet in dejection...
But seriously folks, Thank God that we are alive. And spare a thought for those who are not, who are going to die, and who have lost loved ones. And for all the others who have lost their homes, their possessions, their livelihoods, and their... their everydays.
1) En-route to the bar on top of the Westin Stamford, the elevator stopped at the 69th storey.
Me : Ooh. Look, the 69th! Shall we get off at 69?
Friend : groan
Nobody else got the joke.
2) This morning, while seeing a pleasant English Geriatric (patient)
Registrar : Have you passed motion today?
English Patient : Motions are only passed in Parliament.
*****
Feel
I've been meaning to write about the Earthquake / Tsunami Tragedy for the longest time. And I still mean to. But right now, in my post-prandial state pre-bed and what with being on-call AGAIN after just doing one thursday, now is not the time.
Suffice to say that it was a terrible, terrible thing to happen and thousands of people are suffering in the aftermath - and they are the lucky ones, who survived.
I can't help but wonder at how lucky Singapore was to escape the effects of a three meter wave sweeping six kilometers inland with devastating force. And then spreading further northwards.
That would have been simply devastating.
*****
See
Did anyone else realise that just in front of that horrible Silkpro Monstrosity sitting on Orchard Road (that's right, they have a giant christmas tree called the Silkpro Celebration Tree) there is an outdoor skating rink?
It ends 2nd Jan 05.
Bugger. Typically, found out about it today and am on call tomorrow. I really wanted to give it a spin.
*****
Recall
Reading a friend describe her hiatus from Bloggerworld with the choice phrase "trying hard to resuscitate a lost persona" I couldn't help but think back to yesterday.
The feel of warm blood on my bare hands as I squeezed down hard on a rather-stiff ambu-bag, running on in autopilot. I didn't switch into lead role since there were so many seniors present, which in retrospect perhaps I should have - for just a moment things weren't as organised as they could have been. I just grabbed the ambu-bag, tried to get a seal, and squeezed. A me from another time would have pushed the senior at the head of the bed out of the way to get a better seal, till someone was ready to intubate for-real. A me from another time might even have lost his temper because the adrenaline and atropine weren't arriving quickly enough.
The me today, this me that lives in this strange land we call home is slowly being beaten into submission and silence, and conformity - to what everyone else thinks of you, to what the right role, as you see fit in your head is to play, is.
The me today just squeezed on his ambu bag, and felt rather sad that this woman was going to die.
*****
Forget
His finger wavered over the button, but, as always he couldn't hit "OK".
He put his phone away in his pocket - sometime later, in retrospect, he wondered if perhaps subconsciously he left the message on it, in its pre-sent form, just in case...
... someone called. And he automatically the OK button.
And so the message that never was, became.
*****
Speak
Happy New Year, world. Hope you're all having a great time hitting the bubbly, in a suitably sombre way befitting of a post regional-apocalypse catastrophy. I can just imagine everyone at Zouk right now, hanging their heads and shuffling their feet in dejection...
But seriously folks, Thank God that we are alive. And spare a thought for those who are not, who are going to die, and who have lost loved ones. And for all the others who have lost their homes, their possessions, their livelihoods, and their... their everydays.
