ORD from the Academy.
Its been five months since i was with the academy. Who knew that the rapidly zipping weeks of hard work could be all summed up in 4 days. All the days of sweat and strain put in, all for one event.
The 41st Singapore Malaysia Congress of Medicine, 19-22 July 07This event is an annually one, every year The Academies of Medicine of Singapore & Malaysia will take turns organising the event, this year being Singapore's. During the congress many lectures and symposiums will be held and many recognised doctors & professors would be invited as speakers. At some instances some professors from around the world would be invited as guest speakers. All in the name of post graduate medical studies and further learning & improvement. And most importantly CME points.Day One. 19 July. Opening Ceremony, eveningThe Opening Ceremony of the congress was graced by Prime Minister himself Mr Lee Hsien Loong, and it was on that day that he was conferred an honorary fellowship to the Academy of Medicine, Singapore. Being a historical event in the making, the media was swarming the area and those of you who watched the news that night would have saw PM giving a speech on tv. My special job that night was to chaperone Minister for Health Khaw Boon Wan & PM's wife Mdm Ho Ching to their front seats. Lucky there werent cameras at the front or many would have seen my face on tv and pengs laughing.
PM receiving Honorary fellow Certificate
Too bad i was far away
Though there were plenty of screwups during this event, the problems were all internal and no outsider would smell a rat anyway. As long as things run smoothly to the public's eye, there was no point in stirring the spilled milk.
So that night, one PM was conferred a fellow, 19 Overseas college presidents were conferred fellowship, and 100 local doctors were inducted into the academy. One day down, 3 more days to go.
Temp staff Trio
Puay Yee on my left, Jia Sheng on my right.
Day Two. 20 July. Golden Jubilee Congress Banquet, eveningThe banquet was to mark the occasion of the Academy's Golden Jubilee (50 years). For the occasion we had the President SR Nathan (also patron of the academy) as the guest of honour for the night. As there was no media around that night, the atmosphere was rather informal and more relaxed. Everyone was in celebratory mood. It was a breaktime for the staff during the banquet as we could sit down for once and talk & laugh about the screwups and eat a sumptuous dinner.
Day Three. 21 July. Lectures and more lectures. Followed by another Banquet.For the few days i was assigned to my lecture room where i was the 'timekeeper' was every lecture taking place in the room. Armed with a bell and huge flashcards my job was to mercilessly force every lecturer to adhere to their allocated time. It was fun to watch doctors stumble and sweat as i raised the '5 Mins left' flashcard up and slammed the deafening bell of doom. One doctor literally jumped when i ringed the bell and everyone started laughing. I only realised later that the lecturer was the famous Leo Yee Sin (who's that?) and she is well knowned in the medical society for her talks on infectious diseases. Whatever.
Evening I left Raffles City for Grand Copthorne, in a 7 seater cab. I was made to do chaperoning again, this time bringing 3 overseas college presidents to the College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists Lectureship dinner. Another banquet! Guest of Honour was Professor Raj Nambiar (Honghui's boss!) who looked damn cute in a red bow tie. Like a mouse.
Pamela my office 'mum'
Lovely Eileen
Crazy Nancy
Day Four. Lectures & Thats it.Today everyone was in frenzy mode. Specifically cos it was the last day! Months of hard work and pain are all forgotten after this event, and all that's left to do is celebrate. After the truck with all our millions of boxes and stores left the vicinity, we rejoiced and adjourned to bugis for steamboat.
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And thats my Job at a glance. With the memories and the experiences that have past, i would definitely do it all again.
But not too soon though.
Level ONE potted plant.
Recently i went on a chocolate abstinence for a week. I thought i could make it unscathed but it nearly killed me. And its scary to think of it. When something is so readily available to you you dont really think too much about it. You can go on for days without it. But once you declare a chocolate abstinence you will think of NOT eating chocolate, and that is still thinking of chocolate. Almost too much that you WANT chocolate. At the end of the week i opened up my chocolate stash in the pantry only to realise my colleagues hid all the chocolate and i almost turned the whole LKC room upside down. I found them inside the AIRCON.
Past weekLast sat, Peishan's birthday at newyork newyork, and i almost wanna smash the pool cuestick on the manager's head when he gave us the smaller little table for 11 people. Dun ever go to that place for a huge group outing, cos theres no big table enough for 10! And i almost died eating half an 8-inch burger. Good ambience, and food wasnt too expensive. Funny occurrence with a waitress, when i asked for more water and she pointed to the pitcher & said "the pitcher is empty.." I dunno whether to laugh or throw my unfinished fries at her.
'SUPPLIES' !
Last thurs me & some colleagues went to goldenmile at beach road, the hawker below the armymarket, to try the recently opened chocolate fondue store. One of my colleagues is the friend of the owner.
Quite queer to be eating fondue at a hawker, but after all dessert is still dessert, if we can have chendol or mango puddings at restaurants why not fondues at hawkers? The claypot is quite small though, and a lot of fruits provided, and not forgetting the waffles. They are like WOW. After silently complaining that the chocolate was not enough, i had a refill. Haha. Its somewhat fun to gain things by pulling strings.
Yesterday
After eons we finally picked up our racquets and did a sport which require armstrength, and i realised that i have not exercised my arms for so darn long. After the 2 hour game my right forearm could not even lift itself.
Then we headed to cong's to play boardgames. That it like.. so nerdy! hahaha! But i guess theres a nerd in everyone which is screaming for air. We played settlers and munch. After the game we concluded that
1) MJ cheats at dice-rolling
2) Joel cheats by pre-arranging his desired card to appear
3) Christina cheats at everything
But its ok cos munchkin is meant for cheaters.
I suggest cutting more hexagons and make our current settlers 6-player enabled. And colour more pegs. Damn. I feel nerdy.
After july, its school time. Lets not forget each other.
Real Reason.
The rush of life. The wreck of working war. The sad pace of the rat race. Sometimes we realise that we have to work for a real reason. And when we work for that reason we work long term to justify that reason. But working for a real reason is tough. Working for money is not a real reason; it is a lawful entitlement; any type of work will bring you money anyway. Working to support family is also not a real reason; its the same flaw as working for money. Working for fun is not a real reason; cos fun has a thousand definitions, like for passing time, or working for free and thats a really warped reason. Even working a job to suit your degree is not a real reason.
Real reasons include noble purpose of the job. Pure interest. Religious fulfillment. Prolonging family heritage. And etc. Like serving for the nation or society. Be a damn firefighter, or a selfless policeman; its noble and risky and if you die you know you die saving someone. Or be a teacher who teaches and 'serves for the moral interests and upbringing of the student'. Or be a doctor who cures the sick and prevents the sicker. Or a jedi knight who enbraces the force and protect the world from darth damnation. Thats a real reason.
Serving for interest is also a real reason if you like what you are doing and have been wanting to be doing what you are doing every since you are bitesized; and you are happy with what you are doing at the end of the day. Like an artist or painter who likes to paint and draw and 'enlighten the shallow world with the deepness of art' . Or a professional soccer player who has been kicking his balls his whole damn life. Or a musician who always speak in a tune and has been wanting to show the society how he rock and roll. Or a mindless astronaut who just like to see stars. As long as one is happy and enjoys oneself, that is working with a real reason.
To work for religious fulfillment one has to have a commitment. One must prepare to live with restrictions and laws, and most will be left in pain and dejection. But with plenty of faith and annointing one will pull through and stay strong with belief, for to serve for one's persuasion leads to divine happiness. Be a catholic priest. Why not? That is divine. Or be a church mentor who believes in oneself and God, is strong in faith and also physically due to grace, and will pull through despite love/age difficulties. Work for divine reason.
Most might think that taking over a family business is depressing and stifle one's personal choice and interest. But thats a real reason. Go take over a family fish farm or something. Do it in the name of your family's name. Who knows that old grandfather glasses in your fish farm might hold the key to preventing the world from alien robot destruction? It a real reason to work for heritage.
And it takes a really delusional worker to idealise a reason out of no reason, and these people deserve a long service award. Like serving as an admin assistant for 17 years.
Work for a real reason. Live with purpose. Make sacrifices. And be happy.
Of old.
An old calligrapher stepped into the office today to do the wordings for a certificate for PM. He looked at the portrait of Lee Kong Chian and smiled and said, "na ge shi wo the friend hua de."
Sometimes its good to think straight and not give a damn about what other people say. They're all nuts.
