A wedding, dancing and karaoke

Today is Sunday and though I slept late this morning, I woke up to the incessant sound of the alarm clock at 6.30 am . I am meeting a friend at the park where I exercise at 7.30am. The sky was cloudy and it was an exceptionally cool morning. We had such an animated conversation while walking briskly that we did not feel the time was already nearly 9.00 am!

I also remember that today we are yet invited to another wedding held at the bride's house. You see, as last Friday was the start of the school holidays, many weddings are held during this period to enable faraway friends and relatives and their school-going kids to attend the joyful event. This invitation was from 9.30 am to 2.30pm. The centrepiece ceremony, the"bersanding" that is when the bride and groom sit side by side, at the special dais for everyone to admire, was at 11.30am. As we were too tired, we could not make it to the house till after 1.00pm! But attend we must.

By the time we arrived, most of the guests had already left. Small groups of guests were sitting under the gaily decorated tents in the house compound and the lovely dais was there as well with the couple sitting patiently. The bride's parents introduced us to them before we proceeded to the large garage beautifully turned into a dining place. Music was blaring away and I noticed that it was a karaoke with different people taking turns to sing! Young and old, big and small.

We were enjoying the company and the food, when the bride's large extended family started to gather everybody to do the "pocho-pocho" a kind of dance not unlike step or line-dancing where everyone dances to the rhythmic music. They really enjoyed themselves and they called on the guests to join in. Then it was the "ronggeng" a traditional Malay couple dance followed by the ethnic dance of the" sumazau".. oh it was such fun! Even elderly ladies and men participated in the dancing along with the young ones. The bride's father was sporting himself.

It was an unforgettable afternoon. It must have been a sedate affairs earlier on but the latter part was devoted to the family having fun... we were glad we came later. We would have missed this frolicking fun had we come earlier, not to mention the traffic hassles and the crowd jostling for the sumptious foods catered by a local restaurant.

Susan Boyle... what is it about the Brits media?

Susan Boyle
The woman with a golden voice


Like over 100 million YouTube viewers worldwide, I also watched the 48-year old Susan Boyle's amazing singing performance some weeks ago. Her unkempt appearance and age caused the audience to looked down on her till she opened her mouth and gave that awesome rendition of "I dreamed a dream" from the play Les Misrables. Susan was sensational and her simple woman- on- the street look was most endearing. I kept replaying the performance and marvelled at the gift of the voice and my heart really went out to her.

After taking the "world" by storm, Susan became fair game for the British media. She was hounded everywhere she went, to the salon, to the pub. They commented on her every move, even trying to dictate how her appearance should be. How do you expect the poor woman from West Lothian in Scotland to react in these "abnormal" circumstances of media frenzy? Her irritability was understandable and the media attacked her relentlessly , accusing her of uttering a derogatory word in front of reporters, not wanting to sign autographs for a group of Chinese tourists and they even went to the extent of asking people not to vote for her.

The bad publicity could have caused Susan to lose in the final of the competition, Britain's Got Talent on Saturday 30 May. She came in second and did not achieve her dream of performing before the queen of England, Queen Elizabeth. The treatment she received from the British media especially the famously bad tabloids was horrendous. They first loved her then they turned against her. I think, to them the "package' was still important, that is talent, beauty, youth,brain and poise which Susan has only 40% of. In America, Susan was warmly received and treated with respect and adoration by Oprah and CNN Larry King. I wonder why the British media chose, instead, to make money by capitalising on Susan's lack of media savviness

Weddings and venues

Wedding occasions usually present an opportunity to meet relatives and friends. In this day and age, especially in the urban areas, people tend to have wedding reception in public places by invitation only. Several venues are used instead of the house. A hotel ballroom, an organisation's function room, a convention centre, a sports club, a restaurant are among such venues.

One major advantage of not having it in your house is of course, the dispensation with the big preparations and tiring cleaning -up after the event. It is fine if you happened to have a lot of willing friends and relatives to help you. Still the stress would be too much for most people.

Today I went to a wedding held at a house. The road leading to the house was narrow and by the time we came, the cars had been parked on both sides of the road! We managed to park in front of our host's neighbour's house after asking for his permission. The compound were already teeming with people in all their fineries and the wedding dais had been erected right there as well. There was hardly any space to move though our host graciously guided us to the lounge which had several tables for their special guests. The weather was also humid but thanks to the fans! The company was good and the spread was delicious. As more people were coming in, we decided to leave before the ceremony started so that other people could sit down. We thanked our wonderful hosts and were given a beautifully carved wooden fan each as a gift.

The previous Saturday, the wedding we attended was held at a beautiful resort. The parking was less congested and someone was there to guide traffic.The guests were mingling around the spacious compound with lovely background music. Special guests were seated in the air conditioned function room away from the wedding dais set up in the garden but were called by name through the microphone to bless the couple. We met friends,old and new, who we would not have met so soon otherwise and exchanged stories. It was a pleasant afternoon and I was given a quintessential crystal container for attending and a lovely "batik sarong" for blessing the couple as we managed to stay on till the ceremony ended.

A wedding? And the venue?..... a lot depends on your budget. I have attended many a grand wedding at five-star hotels, at one of them, the flowers alone cost about RM25,000! I suppose if money is not the problem, splurging it would not matter. As for me, I am more at ease with moderation.

MRCB ....it's a slow ascent?

Money Plant


Fresh from my lucky foray into construction stocks of UEMWorld and Gamuda in early 2007 up to about July-August of the same year, I was looking for other construction companies to invest in especially with the 9MP projects all lined up. Unsavvy as I was (and still am), I selected MRCB and HSL which boasted 0f high book values.

The price for MRCB was declining then so I bought at the lowest for the year ( clever eh..) but the timing was all wrong to say the least, as it was
just before the March 8 2008 General Election when the current government lost its two-third majority in parliament and five states taken by the opposition as well as the global financial crisis triggered by the US subprime fiasco..... MRCB subsequently had a merry slide, wiping off most of my investment in the space of eight months.. ( Lessons learnt......I should not have read and listened to the mainstream media most of the time!). From RM2.01 it stumbled pathetically to RM 0.69 at one time in Sept 2008. I was exasperated... fun, yes but this was too much I thought..... I know MRCB is a capable company, quite well managed but it is too big and those borrowings for mammoth projects in KL Sentral.. may be just too much liabilities without fresh leads in the construction industry.

To offset my heavy paper losses , I bought a substantial number of MRCB shares at RM0.70 in November 2008 and through the depression of the economic meltdown and my overseas travels, I have almost forgotten about this purchase...... look, today's MRCB share price is RM1.35........ Gosh! Should I clear my position now and not wait for that unknown growth? I note that among my market portfolios, MRCB is the only one not paying dividends this year (PICORPS is yet to make an announcement)... last year's dividend rate was laughable .. despite the construction stocks slowly making a comeback.... I will stick to trading/service and plantations... in fact I will use the profit from the sale to buy more TM shares and get the regular dividends. This is a better option then putting it in the bank or Unit Trusts.

TM stock..... DIvEs today 27 May 2009

Time is Money

As expected the TM shares took a beating today..... from RM3.84, diving to RM 2.85, covering an entire capital repayment value... my current position is still fine at this level.... if it goes lower than RM 2.70, I am in for the long haul folk! The capital repayment will be used to buy more of TM shares and let it ride... ride because it is not a question of if , it is a question of when it will ever soar... and I am going to be loyal to "my company" and reap its fruits of success in the vibrant Malaysian economy ( why can't the politicians behave themselves?) and let avid investors, including minnows like yours truly help the economy back to its feet through investing!

But the TM story has not yet ended, there might be some surprises before the end of 2009 and I certainly hope to follow all those people laughing all the way to the bank!..... Dream a little as always and keeping the excitement alive and basking in the fun.

Cut down on those peanuts!

I love nuts!

She looked distressed as she walked in. She was in her fifties and a housewife. She had this aching pain just below her rib for the last one day. The pain was worst at night and it came on and off and relieved a little when she just sat down quietly. It did look like this pain was worrying her.

She had a history of all sorts of pain, looking at her record and some doctors had also prescribed "those little heart pills" to be placed under the tongue whenever she had left sided chest pain. But she said this pain was different, it seemed to "expand" within you... Ahah, I decided to engage her along that line... the pain appeared "colicky" and was it better after she passed motion? Was it better after she passed wind ?(flatus in our medical jargon). She agreed wholeheartedly.... and what have you eaten prior to this pain coming on?..... a lot of nuts, peanuts...... Madame, this type of food does produce a tremendous amount of gas in your intestines.... the so-called "expanding" pain relieved by passing wind (farting.. in lay man term) points to this condition.

Medication will relieve temporarily but you have to manage the offending agents. Eat in moderation and reduce those gas-producing foods like peanuts,beans, jackfruit etc .. etc.. I have heard people say they are not feeling well because "air" (angin in Malay) has entered their body... how apt in this case!

Infertile.... please investigate me

Three will be just nice!


Today a lady came complaining of a cough and fever and after examining, making a diagnosis and handing her the prescription, I noted that she was hesitant to get up and leave instead she said rather timidly,that she had been married for more than nine years and had not been able to conceive. Then she fished out two well worn forms from her handbag,which she said were the results of her tests done in early 2008. She saw many doctors but none had written out any plan for her, as a result subsequent visit was not productive to the patient and she finally decided to try for traditional medicine. And obviously this had not been successful.

She is 27 and she is getting desperate as she is not getting any younger.

When asked about her previous medical record, she said she had misplaced them... so much for home-based medical record! I have learnt to be patient with my patients, by being empathetic ... can you imagine she was telling me all this after a prescription of her initial presenting complaint had been written out! The cough and cold are just a ploy... the real problem is she has primary infertility and is pleading to be investigated and..... "Please doctor, please do not pass the buck.." ( I am hearing things!)....ok lady I heard you.

Foreign currency time deposit

This is yet another way of making your money grow, though not as risky as the stock market. As it is not as risky, you will only make as much money, but it is better than putting your money in a bank saving account with the low interest rate. I have been monitoring the British pound since beginning of March 2009. It has fallen from the high RM7.3 to unit Sterling before the financial meltdown in late 2007 to around RM5 in February 2009. Then I noticed that it has been rising rather fast from RM5.2 in mid April to RM5.6 last week. Despite the occasional negative financial reports coming out of UK, I have faith in this currency. I admire the British ability to ride the financial storm. Their innovation is legendary so is their competitiveness.

So I put my money on this rising currency on a time deposit basis, instructing my banker to alert me once the rate reaches a certain percentage. The interest is negligible, the focus is on the change in rate.... so quietly, you can make some money without having to ask yourself like that poor Prince Hamlet..... to be or not to be...

TM stock.. to dispose or not to dispose, that is the question.

After staying out of the market for what seems a long time following the depth of the financial turmoil, the current clear, albeit, small global recovery, persuaded me to visit the market.On 23 April I was contemplating buying TM (Telekom Malaysia) shares, it was then below RM3.25, having risen from about RM 2.20 in Nov 2008. It did look attractive. It continued to rise a few days before ex-date 20 May for dividend of 14.25 sen, following which the price adjusted downwards from 3.96 to 3.84 and down to 3.76 and I decided to buy some shares during this period, eyeing the 98 sen per share capital repayment ex-date 27 May.

However, according to some savvy fellow investors, the selling pressure seen after the dividend payout last week seemed to indicate that the same downward price adjustment covering the entire capital repayment is likely to occur, pushing the unit share value well below the reference price (pre ex-date price),thus likely to be about 2.70 or below, and that certainly will wipe out some of my initial capital investment in the short term! Yes, I will get some cash if I do not sell before 27 May but I would lose some money at the end of the exercise UNLESS the stock price adjusts only slightly downward. Will the herd mentality (especially the institutional investors) repeat their behaviour pattern? As the medium term business outlook for TM is not that great.. this may well be the outcome.

Yet, I believe growing with the company, I take the long position and I love the annual dividend and taking part in voting during shareholders' meeting. Then to dispose or not to dispose should not be the question! Of course if the price is right I will not hesitate to clear my position... Hmmm, this is going to be fun!

Was the Mother for Real?

This afternoon a male child of 13 came in and noisily barging in behind him was a woman and two other children, both less than seven or eight years old. The woman's handphone was ringing away and the two children came to park themselves, unceremoniously, right in front of my desk and I could smell their acrid sweat and sensed their excitement. Even a "bomoh" (traditional medicine man) would be intimidated by this formidable trio, I thought.

I asked whether the patient, the 13-year old boy could speak and the woman, handphone pressed at the ear, said yes but the son ( she was the mother), according to her, wanted her to be around. What? History-taking and physical examination with this motley crowd breathing down my neck! So politely, the mother and the two kids were asked to wait outside and should further information be needed, the nurse would call her. She walked out, her phone still at the ear with the two excitable kids trooping behind fer.

We have had this kind of situation before and the parents accepted it in good faith. Parents usually like to tell their own version of circumstances leading to their child's illness rather than the child's. So my policy is, if the child can relate his story then the parent should stay away and come in only for any additional information or corroboration.

After hearing the boy's story of feeling itchy all over his body for the last one week, not subsiding despite having been treated at a clinic, I proceeded to examine him from head to toe, so to speak, and noted that his skin was unusually dry, in fact some areas were so dry you could see white crusty patches interspersed with scratch marks. No wonder he was feeling itchy. When asked whether he was on any medication or what sort of soap he was using, he did not know. At that point, I asked the nurse to call the mother in. She was heard shouting away that she did not know anything because the boy was studying in a boarding school and that he could talk for himself! She sulkily refused to come in and later complained to the reception that she was roughly treated.

Rough indeed! What kind of mother who would not cooperate in her child's treatment? Her demeanor was also rude and disrespectful, with that handphone of hers and arrogant and foolish, to say the least for probably thinking that her action was justified... I must admit I have yet to come across a mother like this ... was she for real?

From AsTroNomy to OuTer SpAce.... I dream a little.

Interacting galaxies
http://hubblesite.org/

It is hard to be interested in astronomy if you were born in a tropical, seasonless country! There is a glaring reason, if you want to watch the stars and other heavenly bodies you have to do it at night, on a cloudless sky. Imagine many, many years ago, how could our ancestors be interested in watching the stars when there were plenty of mosquitoes around at night? And the heavy tropical rain and sky full of clouds! And those wild beasts waiting to pounce on them... it was better to stay in the caves and be safe.

Now, consider the wandering Bedouins, traveling in the desert, when they looked skyward on cloudless night, they could see those twinkling stars which could have provoked their interests and challenged them to study the heavenly bodies. Remember the story of the three wise men who used the stars to guide them in their journey to Bethlehem? That is why I think, the Arabs were among the earliest astronomers. Their legendary knowledge was somehow acquired by the intelligent westerners who went on to study and develop outer space technology with spin offs such as the satellite technology, wireless communication and GPS (global positioning satellite). The world has benefited a lot from man's curiosity and quest for knowledge beyond mother earth.

Astronomy is the study of stars and planets and going outer space is attempting to reach them and unravelling their mysteries as well as fulfilling that inner need of finding out whether there are other living things out there in the universe beside us.

I had wanted to study astronomy once but I guess I was born at the wrong time and in the wrong place where priorities,level of technology and career chances and recognition are just not there. So here I am in the dreamworld and could only afford to read with awe about NASA activities and the accomplishments of Hubble, that wonderful space telescope, faithfully transmitting back, out-of- this -world views to us.

IT-savvy... not for some people

Moonrise
A celestial wonder


I remember some years ago when we were first introduced to the computer. Many of us then were quite ignorant on how to use it and marveled at those who could. What most young people took for granted today, was quite foreign to us. People were not willing or shy to learn when they have reached a certain age. Moreover the cost of a good computer then was quite prohibitive. This kept away a lot of people. Now computers, PCs or notebooks are available at affordable prices and thanks to Tun M who brought us all, kicking and screaming into the IT world.

I managed to persuade my boss to buy an IBM computer costing about RM27,000 and forced myself to learn Word Perfect and Harvardgraphics ( no windows then!). The reason was simple, I had been accepted as a fellow at the International Child Health Institute, University of London, and one of their conditions, I must be computer-savvy! I had no choice but to jump on the technology bandwagon. Imagine,we had to use Medline for our extensive literature search, it was archaic compared to the present-day internet. We had no hand phones and facsimile was also new.

I know of people who do not use the internet despite having the facilities. I once came across an old schoolmate who gave me her hand phone number but when I sent an SMS to her she never replied till one day I met her and asked why and she told me she did not know how to send an SMS... unbelievable and I dubbed her an alien. The same with email, there are people, especially the over 50 who do not know how to send emails!

Communication and Information Technology is instrumental in promoting a virtual world. We are living in an exciting time, albeit slightly tempered by the current economic downturn, people need to be IT-savvy to realise its full potential. It is hard for some people because they refuse to learn, because the technology was not there when they were young or because they are just being complacent... the case of a lazy mind.

We are at the pre-pandemic level for influenza A H1N1

The detection of two students returning by air from the US last week with H1N1 in Malaysia has somewhat alarmed the people. Conflicting reports were confusing.I read in one of the local newspapers that the virus was fatal and a lecturer from a local university commented that the virus was mild. We must have the correct facts before statements are issued. Even CDC Atlanta (a respected world authority on communicable diseases) refrains from being definite on anything related to this influenza A virus, as the situation is still fluid and evolving. Their guidelines are marked as "interim" as things will change as data comes in and certain aspects of the guidelines will need to be re-written.

Where are we as far as this virus is concerned? Let's look at the alert levels formulated by WHO:

* Phase 1: A virus in animals has caused no known infections in humans.
* Phase 2: An animal flu virus has caused infection in humans.
* Phase 3: Sporadic cases or small clusters of disease occur in humans.
Human to-human transmission, if any, is insufficient to cause community-level outbreaks.
* Phase 4: The risk for a pandemic is greatly increased but not certain. The disease-causing virus is able to cause community-level outbreaks.
* Phase 5: Still not a pandemic, but spread of disease between humans is occurring in more than one country of one WHO region.
* Phase 6: This is the pandemic level. Community-level outbreaks are in at least one additional country in a different WHO region from phase 5. A global pandemic is under way.

As at the time of writing, we are at Phase 5 that is one phase before reaching the pandemic level. That is we are at the pre-pandemic level. Community-level outbreak means people not in direct contact with H1N1 suffers, get infected and are transmitting the virus through person to person contact.

Pandemic, theoretically, may not occur if we are able to successfully stop the virus transmission through preventive public health strategies i.e increasing surveillance,screening and quarantine and public health education. Some countries like Mexico and Japan are taking drastic actions by closing down school, public areas etc.

To date,thirty-nine (39)countries have been affected.These are the countries accessible by air travels. While respective governments stop short of banning air travels, the individual can make his/her own decision bearing in mind, this is a novel virus, whilst so far H1N1 does not appear as deadly as the SARS virus of 2005, we can never be sure of its capability in the medium to long term. It is worth noting that existing influenza vaccines do not guarantee protection as specific vaccine is yet to be produced... if indeed ever to be produced, it would not take less than six months.

Samarinda... I have been there.

Samarinda Islamic Centre

The capital of East Kalimantan (KALTIM) is Samarinda and I bet not many people from this country have visited the place. To get there we first had to go to Jakarta then flew by Garuda Airways to Balikpapan and from here we were driven by a comfortable bus for two hours to reach our destination. We stayed at a lovely 4-star hotel on the outskirt of the city. Dayak House

I noticed the city was undergoing rapid development. All over the place there were constructions going on. In fact Samarinda is constructing the biggest Islamic complex in Asia. We went to their theme park which had a revolving structure, when in operation, it slowly ascended the massive central pole and you could see the vast area all around you at 360 degrees as you were reaching the top. There was also a cable car traversing across a large river. I was rather hesitant at first to ride on the cable car but managed to
muster my courage and took the ride. I remember taking the cable car ride across the sea to Sentosa island in Singapore and only to read about the tragedy of the snapped cables just a few weeks later!

Most of the handicrafts in East Kalimantan were made by the Dayaks, the paintings and beads, just like those seen in Sarawak. There were assortments of semi-precious stones on sale, many made into pretty and fashionable necklaces. We also had the opportunity to visit an area where the people were slightly different from the rest of the population. The ladies are called Dayang and men, Awang or Pengiran and according to the people whom we talked to, the ancestors of the Brunei Royalty originated from this area.... very interesting.

East Kalimantan is fast developing since it was accorded the autonomy status and as such they can now control their natural resources, the most important of which is oil. I could not help noticing that their civil servants mostly looked and sounded Javanese! And we were also told that the region, under President SBY, had been fighting corruption. That is indeed good news for the people.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of developments in East Kalimantan. The city certainly was bustling with activities. The traffics were bad at peak time and there were many shops,entertainment outlets and restaurants serving delicious foods that you could go to. All in all, the visit was an eye-opener for me.

Hi! Miss, no need for you to douche...

A 13-year old girl came in alone one day complaining of pain and itchiness down below accompanied by a malodorous whitish discharge for the last two weeks. She was otherwise healthy and very well-dressed for a little girl of her age. In fact she came to the clinic in the evening three days earlier and was treated for urinary tract infection and given antibiotics and was told to return by the attending doctor if symptoms persist.

Generally, at this age , you would be most concerned with these kind of signs and symptoms. Unless there is a structural abnormality, it is uncommon for a normal pubesant girl to suffer from this condition. She was also too young to be involved in the so-called adult activities. For the sake of completeness, she was asked on these matters for which she vehemently denied.

Lastly, she was asked about any new thing that she had been using for the last one month. After cracking he head, she told of her new practice of washing herself down there with a solution,attractively packaged, every morning and evening, cleaning herself squeky clean. No wonder all the good flora were wiped off, causing her to be easily infected by some opportunistic organisms like Candida albican and later secondarily infected by bacteria, hence the pain and the odour she was experiencing. The remedy is simple... stop douching girl! You are too young to use the "concoction". She was later advised to start taking plenty of live-culture yogurt to help normalise her irritated mucous membrane down below.

I have also seen similar conditions in young women who had used the product aggressively to cleanse themselves. They came in with pain and discomfort in the affected area. Signs and symptoms subsequently stopped after they discarded the practice of douching themselves.

When asked who suggested the use of douching solution, the girl, full of innocence, replied she saw an advertisement on the product and decided to use it on herself.... where is her mother? I was asking the question to myself.

Swine flu... the novel virus

The novel virus is a completely new virus against which man has not been confronted with and therefore possess no immunity to lessen its effects unlike normal influenza virus. Its ability to mutate and jump species make it more difficult to predict.Production of vaccine against it would take some time and as the virus continues to physically and chemically evolve, the vaccine might not be, ultimately, as effective as expected and this would mean a great commercial risk to the manufacturer and a dire impact on the human population, especially in developing countries.

Person to person transmission of this novel virus is an essential feature of a pandemic which is declared in stages by WHO (world health organisation). More cases are being reported in a number of countries whose citizens had been to North America and possibly had come in contact with the virus.Pandemic level 6 will only be declared by WHO if there are cases in the community among people who are not in contact with people coming from suspected countries. When there is evidence for this sustained person to person transmission in communities ,then the declaration will be made.

The current strain seems to be sensitive to the antivirals, oseltamivir and zanamivir and this influenza A H1N1 also appears milder than the one in 1918 which killed about 50 million, nonetheless, concern has been expressed that the second wave might be more severe as genetic materials of swine, avian and human interact to produce a "stronger nemesis". So the global fear and local prevention frenzy seem justified all around because we are actually dealing with mostly the unknown!

Mother's Day, Sunday 10 May 2009

Sunday is not a relaxing day for me as attention is now focused on housework. Being sedentary for five days a week is not doing any good to my health.I take Saturdays and Sundays as exercise days which actually starts at 6.30am with brisk walking at the nearby park for about 40 minutes. There are usually less walkers compared to other days as the regulars do take a rest on Sundays. I am, by the way, only a weekend regular.

Then the washings and cleaning and dusting, real exercise which I used to let someone else do before and would then be breathless for any incidental physical work I had to do but not now as I have toned my muscles, the heart, the lungs (plus the brain of course, with the crosswords and sudoku) through a variety of exercises for the last few years.

Last Sunday was special though because it was Mother's Day and every mother needs pampering once in a while and to receive a surprise bouquet of lovely flowers really made my day, thank you Tasha. And yes, I was treated to a nice dinner at my favourite hotel, and thanks to Jeff and Mus, just as well I skipped my lunch, otherwise I would be blaming the weighing scale.

H1N1.... (extreme) global fear, (frenzied) local action... true GLOCAL!

Yesterday as I came in to work, I saw a big banner on H1N1 screening being publicly displayed.... and today a nurse, complete with a mask was seen sitting behind a desk, next to the foyer.. waiting to screen patients for H1N1... I could not suppress my smile. If you look at the demography of the people who attend this health facility.. you'd think that this is an over-reaction, or is it a clever strategy to show the citizens that the government is doing something?

Another drastic local action, be it far away, was the quarantine of dozens of symptom-free Mexicans in an hotel in China, triggering a diplomatic row... after SARS who would blame the enigmatic Chinese who, by the way, hid from the world the deadly disease which caught people unprepared and many,as a result, died! At least the Mexicans are transparent. Geographically,a lot more of our countrymen travel to China than to North America! We were justified to be frenzied then.

Regardless of whether an epidemic or a pandemic,for personal safety and as a universal precaution,I would don a mask whenever a patient comes in with coughs especially when dear old TB is making a come back due to multi-drug resistance and high prevalence of HIV.

Frustrating.... but well worth it.....

Knowing your audience before you give a talk or presentation is very important. Finding out who they are, what is their educational status, their preferred language will help you to tailor your presentation to suit their level. This is common sense, I could hear someone sniffing! Yes, so common that I totally disregarded it, much to my chagrin. As I was so used of giving talks to English-savvy professionals, I assumed my next audience to be in a similar orbit.

I spent days preparing the materials, refreshing the basics,reading the latest developments on the subject, talking to the specialists,borrowing and pasting photos on the slides and ended up with 46 slides, perfectly done with Window Vista Microsoft power point. I was in the library and at the club ( for its beautiful, tranquail environment, its air-cond and its WiFi) and mostly because I did not want to be distracted had I been at home, whatmore with our unreliable internet connection! Nevertheless, the night before my presentation, I did not sleep a wink due to last minutes slides refinements.

So much for my hardwork ( which by the way I enjoyed doing), and when the day came, I noticed a few minutes into my presentation, all in English, that most of my audience had a blank look on their faces... yes, your guess is right, they could not really understand English.. I then blabbered slowly in the national language (BM), but it was frustrating to have to explain things like "blurry vision", what do you say in BM? " closed-angle glaucoma".... glaucoma sudut tertutup? Didn't sound right to me..wait till I had to explain the mechanisms of structural damage to the eye giving rise to open-angle glaucoma.. malfunctioning trabecular meshwork, say that in BM.....frustrating I can tell you.

Am I not glad I am not a lecturer? Imagine,preparing materials in English then having to translate them into another language! Despite all the misgivings, the exercise has made me more computer and internet-savvy (thanks to my ex IT officers who guided me through mobile phone!) and having been used to getting things done by other people in the past, I now can hold on my own with no sweat. I am pleasantly surprised that a complete presentation can be accomplished by just having a computer and an internet connection. My past ignorance spoke for itself.

Needless to say, most of the technical materials are in English, so I wonder about those who are not conversant with the language, what are their chances of keeping abreast with the latest? How do we stay competitive in this globalised world if we lack K-workers?

MotiVAtion to ReAD, REad to Be MOtivAtED

The motivation for me to read now is based on the premise that I do not know many things in my life and I want to know them. I want to know what other people go through in their lives, so I read memoirs or biographies. I read about President Obama's quest to discover himself in "Dreams from my father", it was enlightening and now I am reading a book by Clarence Thomas, "My Grandfather's son". Clarence Thomas is the first black to be elevated to the US supreme court.

The heart-rending experiences both men went through, I believe, have made them exceptional men today. I am motivated to go on improving myself, be it in professional or social spheres because my belief in the human spirits is strengthened by such non-fiction.

I also read to keep abreast of the ever dynamic field of my profession. Being a professional, I have to ensure my knowledge and skills are current for the interest of the clients I serve. I am proud of my profession and will not tarnish it by being ignorance of new advancements, I owe it to my clients! So I am motivated to keep reading.

I also read for pleasure, for example, I love short stories and crime novels. I found a free website on best "American short stories". They are beautiful and intriguing stories, short and sweet, you can read each story in 15 minutes! I really enjoy them.

I read blogs as I found them weirdly interesting,blatantly unbelievable, utterly honest, glaringly dishonest, grimly true, sadly told, angrily expressed,truly laughable and totally free! You can only have these feelings through reading My Dear Noor..

I am also able to cook new dishes through reading the recipe blogs... what else motivates me?