A Need To Stick (Needles Into People)

I have been doing a week of anaesthetics now, and I'm just glad that I'm getting better at putting laryngeal masks down people, although intubation would be a nice next step. It is quite a gentle rotation, get to work at eight and then leave on time at five. There is nowhere else in medicine that offers those kind of hours.

(Did I just hear a dermatolgist clear his throat in the background? And is that an opthalmologist putting his hand up? And do I see a general practitioner frantically waving?)

2 minor complaints:
1) Hat hair. There is no way of looking glamorous having hidden your hair under the obligatory shower cap they make you wear in the operating theatres.
2) My feet are killing me. I am standing on the most worn out pair of shoes ever. I am getting involuntary foot reflexology from little Chinese aunties hiding in my shoes.

Otherwise, it has been a really fun rotation and quite beautiful at times:

"We need to shift the other cases," the nurse-in-charge barks. "We've got an emergency Caesarean coming in". "Okay," says the anaesthetist. "What needs to be done, needs to be done."

She is soon wheeled in, looking heavy and tired from her arduous labour. It is her first baby. She is on her side, eyes closed, tired from the lack of sleep and the painful contractions.

"Hi, Mrs. N, you're going to have a baby soon," the anaesthetist smiles. "We need to put a needle into your back so that you won't feel what's going on."

She nods her consent and exhales "I trust you." She sits up and leans forward as he paints her back with disinfectant. He struggles awhile with the anaesthetic, trying to find his way into her spinal column to give her the injection. The obstetricians peer in through the glass into the anaesthetic room. He has to wait while she has her contractions. She is on the verge of tears, but too exhausted to cry.

He finally succeeds, and she is on her back again. The anaesthetic soon kicks in and she is soon comfortable. She is wheeled in to the operating theatre, and prepped. "You will feel some tugging and pulling," explains the anaesthetist, "but you shouldn't feel any sharp pains, alright?" She smiles.

Once she is ready, we call her husband in. He sits with her behind the drape curtains we have strung across her chest. They cannot see what is happening, but only put their trust in the obstetricians labouring on the other side. The paediatrician is at standby, ready to receive the baby, and to resuscitate it if needed.

They hear a cry from the other side of the drapes, and the cord is cut. "That's a healthy cry!" the midwife smiles brightly. The baby is brought to the paediatrician, protesting loudly against being taken from her sanctuary for the past nine months. The paediatrician smiles - there is nothing to worry about.

The baby is cleaned and wrapped up in swaddling cloths, and brought to the side of the exhausted mother and the bewildered father. They both have tears in their eyes. The midwife leans in with the baby. "Have a look at your beautiful little girl!"

There are congratulations all around from everyone.

The father comes closer to his daughter, his lips trembling, and pulls the cloth aside from her left ear. He whispers a prayer into her ears, for a good life, and for good health and for all the blessings in the world a father can ask for his child. He takes some honey he has brought with him and with his little finger, dabs a little honey and gently draws along his newborn's lips, with hope for a lifetime of sweetness only to ever cross her precious lips.

The mother looks at her little baby, smiling, and the tears travel along the ridges of her face. The baby is taken from her to the nursery and she lays on the operating table as the obstreticians finish sewing her up. She is happy but almost unsure what to do now. "Don't worry, we will look after her. Why don't you just have a little sleep now."

Nine months of morning sickness and cravings and back pain and sleepless nights finally catch up with her and she drifts off into a deep sleep. The father kisses her forehead and walks away on air, looking as if he'd won a marathon which his wife had run for him.

Happy birthday, Mum! I can't wait to get back in a week's time!

Anyone Else But You - Michael Cera and Ellen Page

"I'm tantalised, and weak at knees,
My words seek to betray,
The memory of your loveliness,
I stammer what I say.

My heart starts to run amess,
My mind in scrambled thought,
And the love that I would confess,
Will at my throat be caught." -HK-

Enjoy this clip from aforementioned Juno, and have an inspired Valentine's Day!

Anyone Else But You

property of Fox Searchlight Pictures

Juno MacGuff: "I just need to know if it's possible for two people to stay happy together forever."

Mac MacGuff: "In my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person will still think the sun shines out your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with."

- Juno, 2007 -

If you're looking for a film to see this Valentine's Day, there's no need to look beyond here. This film is sweet and although not over-the-top funny, it is certainly an endearing watch and worth your (partner's) money for the outstanding performance by Ellen Page as the title character Juno MacGuff.

The film's focus is on 16 year old Juno, working her way unsteadily through her first pregnancy, a baby she does not want, which brings her into contact with the adoptive parents she has selected for her child.

There is no looking away from Ellen Page as she carries this role with a confident swagger, and my brother was reminded about Megan Follows a.k.a Anne of Green Gables who we nursed a crush for growing up!

(/short flashback)

Other characters I had crushes on growing up:

Alana (Katherine Cullen) in The Girl from Tomorrow. There was just something about the way she said the word transducer that made her appealing (don't I sound like the pervert!)

Victoria "Vicki" Ann-Smith Lawson (Tiffany Brissette) in Small Wonder. Okay, so she was a robot. But she was a cute robot! Complete with apron!

Cheetara from Thundercats. There's just something about a leopard woman in leotards...

Nala from Lion King, Simba's partner. There's just something about a lioness....

(/disturbing interruption to short flashback)

Hahaha! Okay, so the first two were real, although I'm sure that if I thought harder about it, there would be more. But Megan Follows was definitely up there - imperious as the witty and confident Anne.

I'm sure that I've missed some but feel free to add in your own little childhood crushes! And go watch Juno!

Thundercats are go!

Disturbing Beauty

I've continued my reading/movie watching habits on my days off while doing this rotation, and I should make mention of one of each here. It has been a trend of ugliness and disturbing topics packaged in an artistic manner:

1) Adib Khan's The Storyteller. I was amazed that this gentleman was actually a Bangladeshi national who, more surprisingly, wrote this book in Ballarat (one of the country towns in Victoria!). I picked it up randomly from the library, and I'm kind of glad I did.

Although it doesn't deal with anything pretty at all - the story follows the life and death of a horribly misshapen dwarf living in the slums of India amongst prostitutes and hijras (eunuchs) who makes his living as a thief and a storyteller - the writing was quite beautiful and the pictures were really vividly painted in your mind.

It deals with a few issues about religion, poverty but mainly loneliness and despair. I was surprised to find out that Mr. Khan started writing at the age of 40 - out of boredom because he found himself stuck doing a teaching job in a country town in Victoria. Man, if books come out of your midlife crises, then bring on my mid-life crisis now!

2) Fruit Chan's disturbing 'Dumplings', the whole movie (which was abridged and inserted into the Three...Extremes series).

The reason I watched this one was because I was initially hooked to the Three concept - Three was originally a series of three short horror movies inserted into one movie. There would be representation from Korea, Thailand and Hong Kong.

I know some of you avoid horror movies, and as I was sitting in that dark cinema all those years ago I was regretting my choice already - the Korean short came on first and it was pretty scary, but conventional scary. The Thai one just left me wishing I was somewhere else - not because it was frightening, but because it was just plain B-grade bad!

However, the last one in the series - which is called "Going Home" by Peter Chan Ho-Sun was an absolute masterpiece - shot in beautiful detail, and the storyline was amazing. It wasn't Nightmare on Elm Street scary, it was more Sixth Sense eerie, and this movie stayed with me for awhile.

Anyways, Dumplings was a highly disturbing watch as it tells the story of a lady who is seeking eternal youth and beauty by eating dumplings made from... I'm going to stop right there and throw up, actually. The cinematography was beautiful (Christopher Doyle is a godsend to Hong Kong cinema) and he is an Australian as well!

Wrapping the ugliness of the world in beautiful shots/words - is there a trend here?

If you had to decide between the two, I would recommend "Going Home" hands down - it was on Youtube for awhile but it has been removed due to copyright reasons.

Alternatively, if you like your viewing light and happy and you're looking for Asian cinema, the most delightful show I've ever seen is Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald - I watched it twice while it was screening in Malaysia. Don't even try to find it - it is impossible (although I'm sure eBay should be more than happy to oblige your curiosity!)

Worth hunting for, and worth keeping!

Year of the (Pack) Rat

I have read somewhere that women find their partners most attractive when they are engaged in homely activities - playing with the kids, doing the dishes, cleaning up the house. Today, I must be the sexiest man alive.

It is the Chinese New Year tomorrow, and I was asked by my housemate if I wouldn't mind cleaning the house. It is a Chinese New Year tradition that on the days leading up to the first day of the New Year, people often frantically clean their houses in preparation for the Lunar New Year.

There is a more superstitious reason as well - one is not allowed to sweep the house during the New Year celebrations (which lasts 15 days) as we believe that you are sweeping your good luck away.

Thankfully, our household only has a vacuum cleaner. So all our good luck will be kept in the little disposable bag inside the vacuum cleaner until we decide to empty it into the bin.

Seeing that I'm now doing my night shift, I wake up at erratic hours, depending on how many hours of sleep I got at work the night before. I had four hours of sleep at work two days ago, and so the day after I woke up at one pm at home, inspired to do some cleaning, and cleaned the bathroom.

One bathroom among three boys and on occasions, a girl, means unfortunately that when my mum visited, she wouldn't step in the shower area unless I cleaned it! Haha!

It's amazing how quickly our skin flakes reaccumulates around the shower area - it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. (Somehow, that someone suspiciously always seems to be me!)

And yesterday night, I had all of forty five minutes of sleep, and so I woke up... at one pm again! So much for paying off the sleep debt!

I was inspired to clean the living room, this time, and it was an arduous afternoon - cleaning the pantry, moving plants around, bringing decorations stored away in the cupboards - just to give the house a more homely feel.

What is my secret to doing it so quickly? I basically took everything around the living room and distributed it to the three rooms upstairs! (To my brother and my housemate and my secret subscriber - the living room looks great now, but I'm really sorry about your rooms! Haha!)

The finished product.

The best thing I loved about cleaning up is that it allowed for a little creative freedom, and I'm pretty chuffed about our new dining table centrepiece now!

Yeah. That's as creative as it gets, unfortunately.

Look, don't mistake me for the ultimate husband, because this only happens like once in a blue moon. And the moon must have been holding its breath all of last night!

I'm comfortable in reasonably messy surroundings, and am not bothered if there are a few dirty dishes in the sink threatening to crawl out having evolved over the time period they've been left there.

HK's Guide to Channeling Your Anger

Growing up, I had this peculiar eccentricity- I only cleaned up the house whenever I was really angry. Our home was often messy, to the extent that I always hesitated to start cleaning because, well, I just didn't know where to start.

Strangely enough, some of my best packing is done when I've had an argument with my mum -we'd get into a heated argument, and then I would say things that I would regret, and when she has walked off to cool down, I would start grabbing at things around me to place in order.

Perhaps it was a distractive habit, but sometimes, I did it as a way of saying sorry to Mum. I would often have said many hurtful things in the heat of the moment, and sometimes my verbal apologies were insufficient. Me cleaning the house allowed the both of us time apart and she was always grateful when I had cleaned up the house.

I remember one huge bust up we had though - it was outside the house and I was actually kept outside for several hours. It gave me time to clean up my Taman's local playground that time! (I wish I was making this up!)

We never stayed angry at each other long, however, and that's one thing I've learnt from Mum...

... although sometimes I wonder if Mum has ever looked around the house and thought to herself

- 'Hmm, place looks a little messy... maybe it's time to start an argument.'-

- 'HK! Don't only know how to play ah! Have you finished your homework yet, sui chai!?' -

Haha! Wouldn't that be funny!

I love you, Mum, and thank you for teaching me never to stay angry for long. Happy Chinese New Year to all my friends and family reading this.

All angpaus welcome, thank you very much. Please save mine in Malaysia!