Impressions from China - More Snow!

It snowed again last night through this morning.

However, with temperatures above zero today, most of the snow has melted except for some patches on the grassy areas.

Luckily, I took some snowy pictures...

Snowy landscape

Chinese method of shoveling snow...with shovels & broomsticks

Environmentally friendly snow shovel


Snow rabbit

The forecast says more snow next Tuesday....crossing my fingers!!!

Impressions from China - Snow

"By the way, it's snowing," my husband said as he was leaving for work this morning.

That had me jumping out of bed in child-like glee to look out the window.

I don't know why, but snow brings out the child in me, making me all excited & jumpily happy, if you know what I mean. Even though today's snowfall was more of a flurry, just the sight of the white flakes drifting down was enough to put a smile on my face. Most of it melted on the ground as the ambient temperature was not cold enough to keep it solid.

But still, it was nice while it lasted. I guess I would be telling a different story if I was one of the folks living in the Mid-west of the USA experiencing their 76th snowfall of the year..... :)

Impressions from China - Pants on Fire

A friend of a friend took these pictures of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel fire right next to the CCTV building (aka "the giant underpants"). He took them as he was driving past the site.


Unbelievable. Hard to imagine that fireworks caused this.

We drove past the remains of the building today. It was a sad sight, a grey shell, covered with ashen-grey soot. It almost looks like if I touched it with my index finger, the structure will crumble into...well....dust.

There is lots of talk about how it could have been a purposefully set fire for the sake of insurance (read: arson), but it's just talk.

But this being China, who's to say what's true & what's not....

ROFLMAO!!!

I love David Letterman!!!



Don't know what's up with Joaquin Phoenix....is he on drugs or something???

Bedside Manners

This is an interesting article from the New York Times. The physician-teachers who taught me in medical school, & my seniors when I was a houseman ranged from the truly compassionate whom the patients loved, to the abrupt (& scary!). And as a practising physician, I saw the same range of different bedside manners in my colleagues.

Communication is one thing. But to be able to be compassionate especially when dealing with patients, I feel, is just as, if not more, important.

I wonder how NUS "teaches" bedside manners these days. I know that in my day, there were certainly no such modules; it was look & learn, which, as you can imagine, left a lot to be desired.

Amazing Technicolor Family

Reading this article about President Obama's multicolored extended family, it gives me hope that we are entering an age in the USA in which we celebrate diversity instead of propagate prejudice.

Even in Singapore which prides herself in her multiracial, multicultural society, on the surface, this harmony appears prevalent. However, dig deeper & you will see that age-old racism still exists, & xenophobia is quite rampant.

I sometimes read the Straits Times Forum page online, & notice that each time there is criticism about some aspect of Singapore, or when someone suggests improvements using examples from another country, the racists & xenophobes crawl out of the woodwork & start slinging mud at the writers for daring to say bad things about Singapore or that other countries can actually do things better. I find it annoying as hell that people can be so closed minded to everything foreign, ESPECIALLY in a country that supposedly prides itself in being so damned tolerant of the different cultures who live on this tiny island. Talk about hypocrisy.

Personal experience has also colored my vision (pun not intended) of the extent of prejudice & xenophobia in Singapore, with comments (not complimentery) made about my childrens' accent/nationality when they attended a local school in Singapore for a few years.

Together with recent events (both personal, as well as nationally) which, to me, shows that the Singapore government is losing/has lost its soul & compassion, I am not sure anymore that I can make Singapore my home again, nor do I think that it's a good place to raise a family. Oh sure, it's a great place to make money & lead a comfortable life. But apart from the material comforts, I believe that what's in our hearts & souls also needs nurturing....& I am not sure that Singapore has what it takes to do it. I hope that I am proved wrong...

Impressions from China - Fireworks!

It's fireworks galore tonight, right, left & center! 15 more minutes till midnight & it's the first day of the Chinese New Year (gong xi fa cai, everyone!). I put my hands on the window pane & I can feel the them vibrating as the sound waves from the crackling explosions hit the glass. I expect the cacophony to continue till past midnight as the villages that border our compound celebrate the coming of the new year.

We bought our own fireworks to light, which we did tonight out in the freezing cold. So much fun it was, lighting up & then running for cover, with fingers plugged into our ears to shield them from the explosive sounds! Growing up in Singapore, where fireworks were banned, I am now making up for all the deprivation with my sons! (Note: yes, we are careful!)

This is the view from our living room....

Smile :)

If this doesn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will!!!



Funny Videos

Condolences

My heart goes out to the Travoltas on the death of their son, Jett.

I can't imagine anything more devastating than losing a child....

Quality

So what does the Toyota automotive manufacturing process have to do with health care?

A lot, apparently, according to the book, The Best Practice - How The New Quality Movement Is Transforming Medicine, by Charles Kenney.



The author relates the history of the Quality Movement in health care in the USA, in a story-telling narrative style that turns a book on a potentially dry topic, into a page turner. Mr Kenney uses real-life stories to reveal how the health care industry in the USA has slowly realized that quality improvement processes that have traditionally been used by the manufacturing & aviation industries can be applied to health care systems as well, to minimize "defects" (or "adverse events" in the medical world).

I think this book with the mouthful of a title is a must-read for medical professionals to serve as an eye-opener. Quality in Medicine certainly was something of a revelation for me when I worked for that brief period in health administration.

As medical students & then as clinicians, we were never exposed to the "outside world" as far as systems & processes were concerned. We were taught the way our predecessors were taught: mainly by the mentor-apprentice method, the student imitating the teacher, & oftentimes, picking up on bad habits, and operating within an environment of "blame & shame" so that errors remain hidden & buried under a culture of fear, and hence, hindering any possibility of correction.

This book tells of how a handful of people with radical ideas & persistence dared to challenge, & subsequently, changed & improved the quality of health care, starting with their own work environment.

I am inspired by their stories.

There is Hope yet.

Wolverine!!!

Check this out...

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD


Opens May 1st.

PLEASE let it be released here in China!!!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all a Happy & Safe Holiday Season, wherever you may be!

Impressions from China - HoHoHo

Overheard at a local supermarket, this familiar Christmas jingle...with a twist...:

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one house open sea..."

Holiday Season

This Christmas, we will be spending the day as a nuclear family unlike last year when our extended family came to Beijing to visit & we had a house full of laughter, love & cheer. That's not to say that we won't have these sentiments this year, just to a smaller extent. :)

Bittersweet, really, as my older boy will be heading off to college in less than 2 years, & this will be the 2nd last Christmas we will have together as a family before he ventures out into the great, wide world. More than likely, we will be living on different continents, at least for a couple of years - hard to predict in a semi-nomadic family like ours.

From my experience, it doesn't really matter where you are in the world....if your loved ones are with you, the warmth of the holiday season does not diminish as long as we are together.

Wishing all a safe, happy holiday season (despite the dismal economic outlook).

Not quite a Merry Christmas

"Shares slump in view of economic climate!"


"Terrorists bomb Mumbai hotel!"


"Blue chip company slashes xxx jobs!"


"Dismal economical outlook in near future!"


"xxx Bank to lay off xxx jobs!"


It's quite depressing reading the news headlines these days. Right, left & center, we are inundated by bad news...it's enough to make one just want to crawl under a rock & hibernate until things start looking better.

Even the health care industry hasn't been spared. I would imagine that the pay cuts & layoffs would affect just the senior management, since the actual doctors, nurses & paramedical staff are not that highly paid in the first place? At least, not compared to the kazillions of dollars that CEO's & senior folks get paid in salary & bonuses. Besides, there always seems to be a shortage of clinical staff in the primary care sector anyway, so cutting their salaries would seem rather short sighted.

So I hope that's not going to happen.

But then I'm not an Economist, I'm just a doctor, so what do I know :).

Just speaking from the heart.

TCK's

This is an interesting & different perspective on President-elect Obama & his new team....

I think it will bring focus on the growing population of Third Culture Kids in the world that we live in. With all the conflict that is going on these days, perhaps the future lies in the hands of these young people who have grown up appreciating that there is more to the world than just what lies within their own little community or country.

We'll see.

Reunion

For many of us, the last time we met was just over 20 years ago at our graduation ceremony.

That seems like many lifetimes ago for me. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined the life experiences I have had, nor the places I've seen or the countries I've lived in. Then, our main concern was to get through the next night call, crossing our fingers that we wouldn't have too many admissions or get too many pages (I have since discovered that the pager service in Singapore has been discontinued....man, do I feel old & decrepit).

It was great fun getting together with my ex-classmates. I think about half our class showed up - more than expected. I couldn't recognize some of them & it was awkard being said "Hello" to by a familiar face whose name I could not recall! There were a few whom I had to ask close friends to help me identify! Memory is getting terrible. But for the most part I could still remember their names, with a bit of nudging at the ol' brain cells. Most had more gray hair, some with a lot less hair on their heads, some extra pounds (including moi) & a few more wrinkles. Many are senior physicians, with impressive reputations in their own fields. Many are GPs with their own practices or medical groups. But being together again that night, we left our "other lives" outside the door & for a couple of hours, we were med school classmates again.

We had such a great time that there is talk of organizing another get together - not 10 years from now, but 5 years maybe.

I am looking forward to the next one....

Hope

It's been years since I've seen such cohesion among Americans all over the world. The last time was on Sept 11, 2001, when the world stood still, & Americans despaired & united in tragedy when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed under the attack of terrorists.

Today, it was elation I saw, as Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States, the first black president of this country. He won by a landslide & from the footage shown of the multitudes celebrating, I shared in the joy & hope felt by the American people. Obama represents a new age in American politics, where hopefully, diplomacy wins over brute force, & open-mindedness triumphs over insularity.

I hope, with all my heart, that he will live up to the expectations of those who voted for him today.

20 Years

20 years since we took the Final Exam.


20 years since we walked up on stage to receive that much-worked for piece of paper that made it official that we were finally doctors.


20 years since the first time I heard myself being addressed as Dr So-and-So; it felt strange & awkward, a bit like a new pair of shoes that needed some time to be worn in & gotten used to.


20 years since the first call, & feeling petrified/exhausted/exhilarated/hungry/thirsty/sticky (no shower for me that day - no time).


20 years.


I am heading back for our reunion this coming week.

It will be interesting.

Random Musings

It's been an incredibly busy past few weeks for me, as we went away for a short break, & I was involved in the planning of an International Day in my kids' school.

It's hard to know what to blog about these days. I started this blog partly as a creative outlet for my right brain, & partly as a vent for my woes as a physician. Now that I am not practicing clinical medicine, I find myself busy & enjoying my busy-ness volunteering in school, helping to organize events, updating websites, creating poster & flyers & endless other tasks. What a difference it is to be busy & not feel miserable about it like in my previous life!

People ask me occasionally whether I miss it (my practice, that is) - & more often than not, the answer is no. Admittedly, I sometimes feel a slight pull to start working again. But then this lasts for perhaps, a nanosecond before I brush it off & immerse myself back into the role of parent volunteer again.


On a different note, I think Chinese drivers are the worst in the world. Yesterday, I was stuck in a gridlock when the Airport Expressway was closed for the arrival of dignitaries into Beijing for the Asia-Europe summit to discuss the horrendous world economic situation.

Drivers here do not understand the concept of giving way. Neither do they pay any attention to the concept of a two-way street. Long line of cars? Never mind, they think, just go onto the opposite lane to create a nearly impossible situation of cars going every which way, that takes an expert in the game of Rush Hour to solve.


The US elections are on the minds of many these days, & not just the Americans. My husband asked my opinion last week on who he should vote for, as it was & is a tough decision. If I could vote, I think I would go for Barack. McCain looks like a good guy, but the thought that if he dies (he IS in his 70's after all) & Sarah Palin taking over doesn't really sit well with me!



I finally watched Mamma Mia last week (on bootleg DVD of course, where else) & throughly enjoyed reliving the music of ABBA. I was rather put off by Pierce Brosnan's singing though & was cringing through the bits when he had to whine his way through duets with Meryl Streep, who had a very pleasant voice. I also caught "The Rocker", a "School of Rock" copycat which held its own with Rainn Wilson being hilariously funny as a has been rocker/drummer from the 80's trying to regain his fame with a teenage rock band. Next up on my list of DVDs To Watch include "Wall-E", "The Adventures of Zohan" (which probably contains mostly juvenile slapstick humor - but in these days of economic doom & gloom, I need the laughs), & season 4 of Gray's Anatomy.