Look at what I made!

Winter Wonderland

It's been a while since I saw sunshine. After a 12 hr sleep post night shifts, I decided to take myself for a nice walk at the Botanic garden to have 'me' time. With a nice cup of warm chai latte in hand, the weather was just perfect. Not too cold, but just nice for a little walk.

It was my second time in 6 years at the Botanic garden. I remember the first time was with Addielle, we somehow decided to take a walk there to take some pictures.
I saw quite a few pretty things this time, like this arch. I don't know what it's meant to be but I thought it was pretty. I didn't have a fancy camera to take photos with but I thought my camera phone can serve its purpose. There I was walking in the park in the midst of couples kissing and grandma and grandpa walking hand in hand, but meh, I had fun walking around by myself too.
I found this big tree in the middle of an open field and this random thought came to my head and wondered how it's like to be a tiny drawf in snow white! So I sat down and looked up and took a photo.
I also saw this cherry blossom look-alike tree. I've seen this around my house too and always wondered what tree it was, but too bad there wasn't any description of the tree at the garden either. I used to believe cherries grew on cherry blossom trees until about 4th grade. I really want to go to Japan in April during the cherry blossom season. It's really really pretty! It'd be so nice to have a picnic there with petals flying in the air with each wind. Ahhh I need a holiday again.

I spent about an hr at the garden today. I want to go back during spring when flowers are blooming to have a picnic there - hint hint Moses.

A long overdue update.

So since the last post about the yummylicious red bean buns, lots have happened.

Firstly, I had a short but sweet 10 days trip to Japan! Oh my oh my, things do change over the years. The last I remember living in our house in Japan was when I was a wee little 10 years old, just before moving over to Singapore - that's 14 years! Everything looked so big and spacious back then, but now roads are so narrow, houses are small and everything is so crammed. Maybe because I'm comparing with Adelaide where houses are big and even the city is pretty spacious. My 'new' room (because the house was renovated last year) looked so empty, no more barbie dolls and soft toys...but hah, I did refill the room in the end with all the things I bought and accumulated over the 10 days trip! I was more like a tourist back there. Everywhere I went, my parents had to make sure I knew how to get on the right train and find my way home safely. Mum passed me her mobile phone and always made me call her when I reach the train station near home. Sometimes she drew me a map so I knew which shop to go to. Other times both of them had to follow me to go to shopping mall and watch me shop because I couldn't come home without them! Felt like I suddenly became a princess! :P
I also went to visit my relatives that I hadn't seen in eons. My little baby cousin that I used to babysit is now in year 5, my other cousins who were in primary school are now teenagers, and my grandma who used to be heaps healthy now has pacemaker inserted. How time flies and everyone is getting older. But everyone told me that I still look exactly the same as before, which I am not sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.
We went to eat lots of yummy Japanese food. I think I can never be satisfied with the Japanese restaurants in Australia anymore! REAL sushi are heaps nicer!
The trip was also a good time for me to spend some quality time with my parents that I hadn't done in years. Like 3 of us going grocery shopping together, eating every meal together, and my dad asking me about me getting married! The only person missing was my bro, who is in Canada. When are you going to come and visit me?


Secondly, 1st of June marked Moses and I's 2 year anniversary! We (I decided and Moses agreed!) to take some cool photos to mark the 2 years of our journey together. So here are some of them:


Thirdly, it was my birthday on 25th June. Moses took me to Guylian chocolate cafe in Sydney which was absolutely yummylicious. We had a degustation menu!


Fourthly, Joshua and Grace (Moses' 2nd bro) got married on 27th Jun! The reception was held at Peppers Convent at Hunter Valley in NSW. It was a small garden wedding and everything was so pretty. It was my first wedding to attend (since my kindergarten years), and oh how I dream to wear that white wedding dress! Since the wedding I've been searching on the web for pretty dresses and wedding reception sites. What do you guys think about having a reception in Japan? Haha. Moses thinks I'm crazy thinking about all these stuff already while all he has in mind is passing 5th year of medical school.

And last but not least, Moses is an uncle now! Caleb (moses's First bro) and Serene's baby girl was just born yesterday! Congratulations :D And THAT got me thinking about cute baby names for my future son/daughter haha! And again Moses thinks I'm crazy.

So that concludes the last 2 months of my life in a nutshell.

Red Bean Buns!

After 4 days of night shifts this week, I had a day off today! Instead of sleeping the whole day and staring at the computer to flatten my bum bum, I decided to do something a bit more exciting.
Moses first requested for Pandan chiffon cake (which his mum makes perfectly), I declined the idea because I didn't want to use my poor hand to squeeze the pandan juice. I had done the same with shaved coconut the other day and I swear I won't do it again.
I also didn't want to just buy the pre-made extract/colouring/paste, because I like it all natural whenever possible.

So I was surfing through the net and came across someone's food blog. She had pictures with each recipe and that really helped lots. After half an hr of clicking through the pages I decided this is it...baked red bean buns! Just like Nana's bakery in Chinatown...the very fluffy, buttery, fatty kind.

Moses and I went to the market to buy the ingredients in the morning. Next time you want to bake, I suggest you go to the Goodies and Grain shop in the market - it's got all sorts of ingredients, and many are organic too! And you can just buy whatever amount you want in a plastic bag, which means you only buy what you need and prevents you from accumulating stuff in you pantry.

After I got back, I got out the hand mixer with kneading nozzles that Moses bought for me a couple of months ago and started kneading (he hoped that by buying this for me I'll bake more cakes for him). I finished making the dough and I cling wrapped it to let it rest for an hr...but then I realised that I forgot to add the butter! The most essential ingredients for making fluffy, buttery, fatty bread. The dough became a bit gooey because the butter was added a bit too late, but meh, better late than never.

After an hr of letting the dough rest, I divided it into small portions and wrapped red bean paste inside. To finish it off, I brushed the eggwash on top and placed the breads in the oven. After 12 min of baking...Tadahhh! 16 fluffy, buttery, fatty red bean buns!

Ah the joy of eating freshly baked bread straight from the oven.

This is how I spent my Easter

Adelaide is usually relatively quiet. Adelaide without OCFers is even worse!
While everyone (including my housemates) was at the Easter Camp, I spent my time ALL ALONE in this lonely house.
Well not really, because I was rostered to work over 3/4 of the long weekend. It was really an interesting few days.

Before I headed off to work on Friday, I went to the Good Friday church service in the morning. We watched a short skit performed by some of our members. It was cool with the lighting effect and all. And of course, it was a good reminder of what Easter is really meant to be.

When I went to work, our play coordinator gave us nurses cute bunny ears to wear. The whole ward was still decorated from the Fairy and Wizard day a few days prior to this, and plus there were Easter egg decorations around the nurses station. I spent some time making paper bunnies with one of my patients, and chasing her around when she stole my ears! The whole atmosphere at work was brighter, and kids were happier :)

Yesterday a whole heap of police men and women came to visit our babies and children, giving out chocolates and taking photos with Easter bunnies (few police people wore bunny costume). They handed out chocolate eggs to the kids and gave us a whole bag (at least 50 medium sized eggs) too. Even as a choc lover I had never eaten so many chocolates in a day over few days. Talk about health promotion!

***
On another note, there were so many funny people early in the morning and late at night. I guess they had just finished/started drinking and partying. I felt the joy of long weekend all around the city. I had extra time to watch them because Moses was at camp and couldn't pick me up from work. I like people watching, there are so many interesting people around - I enjoying observing them as long as they don't come near me.

***
Before I log off, let me finish with this verse:

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5

I will remember.

I will remember the day I received the first hug from my patient. She ran down the corridor just to give me a hug before she left. Exhaustion from a long day of work disappeared just like that.

I will remember the day I first received a 15month old baby to look after. She had such a complicated medical history and I hadn't heard of at least half of them before. She had O2 and ECG monitor attached to her. I was a bit scared because I didn't quite know how to care for her, and there she started crying in the middle of the night. I methodically checked her O2, sats, ECG, pain score...but found out that all she wanted was to be let out of her cot and to have a cuddle. She went back to sleep in my arms.

I will remember the day I did a body exam on a 6 weeks old baby while parents were away, because of ?child abuse. The little bub was so tiny.

I will remember the day I looked after a toddler whose parents spoke no English. With a little bit of charades here and there, we got through the day. At first she was scared of me, I'm guessing partially because everyone is scared of hospitals and partially because she couldn't understand me. But after a course of time, she smiled and held my hand.

I will remember the day I felt the strength of a mother who has twins and a husband who are all ill. She was strong and real, she knew she couldn't and wouldn't give up. She picked up the sick twin 1 and cuddled, and said everything was ok. That almost made me tear.

I will remember the day I received a transfer from the surgical ward. The patient was a teenager and of course, he had attitudes. The other nurses also had bad impressions of him. But parents left for the night, and after spending a little more time with him, he became more calmed down and seemed to have settled in. He talked, had good manners, and occasionally smiled. I learnt that everyone has the right to be scared, some just needs a little more time to warm up.

I will remember the day I really felt the power of being a 'professional'. A teenager came in with bowel problems and each time he went to the toilet he had to ring the bell so I can 'see' what he has done. Now, on top of being a total stranger to him, in 'normal' circumstances you wouldn't want anybody to just come in and observe your poop. I thought then, being a health professional is a scary thing. People have to come 'clean' in front of us because we need to ask everything about them i.e. health and social history, or any other private issues, and they also need to do what they are told to do. And besides, most people are actually compliant with everything we ask them to do. I find that a bit scary.

Time flies.

Time flies! - it's been almost 4 months since last post.
Lots have happened over the last few months: graduation, parents' visit, stepping into the working world.

Not being a student has a lot of significance. No more student bus fare, no more 3 months summer holidays, no more free labour!
I've been working for a month now and it's been such a learning experience.
I learnt:
- how to hold a 6 weeks old baby
- there are many teats to a baby bottle
- how to warm up and check temperature of baby milk
- how fast babies' heart beat is
- to wrap a baby/small child with bedsheet to 'restrain' them during procedure!
- there are many different families and parenting styles
- babies/young kids drink so much milk!
- kids run around - you cannot expect the person in bed is actually your patient.
- kids' oral meds are oh so colourful
- the importance of being trusted by babies and kids
- 5 min procedure can take 30 min
- almost all kids like wiggles

So I'm starting my first ever night shifts tonight. I've already put lots of chocolates and candies in my bag.
Wish me luck!

Motivation.

Motivation...where art thou?
It's only 3 more weeks...and yet it feels like forever.
My friend told me today, 'there's light at the end of the tunnel'.

I think I'm suffering from a final semester syndrome.

3 more weeks.
That's 21 days.
And that's 504 hours!!

Almost there.

When I was 7, I wanted to become a florist.
When I was 10, I thought you can't make a living being a florist, so I wanted to become a kindergarten teacher.
When I was 15, I didn't know what I wanted to do.
When I was 17, I wanted to be a nurse but my dad opposed so I thought oh well.
Then my teacher suggested why not a doctor and I thought that sounded cool.
After coming over to Adelaide, I decided I don't want to become a doctor anymore because of long working hours.
I still wanted to work in health care sector, so I decided to apply for Health Sciences.
After I graduated from Health Sciences, I didn't know what to do next.

So I applied to Nursing and I am 5 WEEKS AWAY from finishing it!
I hope I don't change my mind again.

You know you are a nurse when...

You know that all bleeding stops...eventually.

Your diet consists of food that has gone through more processing than most computers.

You believe chocolate is a food group.

You disbelieve 90% of what you are told and 75% of what you see.

You have your weekends off planned for a year in advance.

You believe that unspeakable evils will befall anyone who utters the phrase 'Wow, it's really quiet isn't it'.

Your favourite hallucinogen is exhaustion.

You think that caffeine should be available in I/V form.

You shock someone with an unrecognisable rhythm...until you get the one you do recognise.

You can identify what kind of diarrhoea it is just by the smell.

Your sense of humour gets warped each year.

Every time you walk you make a jingling noise because of all the scissors and clamps in your pocket.

You've been telling stories in a restaurant and made someone at the other table throw up.

Every time someone asks you for a pen you can find at least 4 of them on you.

When checking the level of a patient's orientation you aren't sure of the answer.

Addit: from Joannies:
You believe in the legend of full moon night. Every patient will go nuts on those nights.

Chicken rice at 23 Chatham.

Hello audiences. I am still alive.

It's been an eventful past few weeks, from cooking the bestest best chicken rice to eating our Patricks, to eating every 2 hrs when Moses' family came to starting my final clinical placement.

Event number 1:
So Lynn and I arranged a date 3 weeks in advance (see how busy us students are) to cook chicken rice. After indulging ourselves with iced chocolate at a cafe outside the market, we hurried back to my house to start preparing for our dinner for the night. I think pictures can speak for themselves better than I do, so here they are:



And this one...is Breast cancer awareness...with one 'dot' missing hehe.

Event number 2:
We've slaughtered our little children last week. It was a bloody scene.


Event number 3:
Sorry no pictures! I've never eaten so much in my entire life! But all worth it, and heaps of fun!

Event number 4:
I've started my last (fingers crossed) clinical placement in my uni life at the operation theatre suite. I'm currently at the theatre, but will be rotating through anaesthetics and recovery later on as well. The highlight of the first week of placement was that I got to be in the same theatre as my friend who was the surgeon there. It's so tiring having to stand in the theatre all day, especially if the procedure is a complicated one which takes 2-3hrs easily. I can't move around so much in the theatre as well because of the 'sterile procedure' they perform. I have to be careful not to be so close to anything! Today I was in the orthopaedic theatre and watched a total hip replacement and something else I don't remember. Orthopaedics is really bizzare, they position the patient in such weird position and the surgeons perform surgery as if they are doing some carpentry...like drill drill...hammer hammer...cut the bone with a saw...! Through this placement I've come to realise that I'm really not scared of gross things. I don't think theatre is my thing, though. It's one specialty that is very very different from the other areas of nursing and it's a totally different world!
But anyway, this is how I look in the theatre (plus a mask).

Oh happy day!

Oh the sun, the blue sky and the beach..and sausage and egg mcmuffin! What a great way to start off the day. Moses and I decided to head off to Glenelg for Maccers breakfast this morning and the weather was perfect! I couldn't believe that just few weeks ago I was still wearing 2 jackets and a scarf to work. I decided to wear the new summer top that I bought last night (first clothes shopping in many months)but left the new skirt at home because Moses commented that I look like a maid of some sort. His taste and mine tend to clash a bit, like he thinks my shoes are very 'auntie'. But anyway. As we sat on the grass and opened up our burgers, we realised that we were not alone...there was an army of seagulls waiting for us to drop some food for them! How scary, but that's so typical of Glenelg. If the ice cream shops were open I would've gone to Baskin Robins but sadly it was too early in the morning. Seemed like we weren't the only ones enjoying the sun though, as we saw many cyclists on the way and dads running along the beach while pushing the pram. Kill two birds with one stone. Ohh I can SO feel that summer is around the corner (although Spring just started few days ago)! I can't wait to go summer clothes shopping and wear those flowery long summer dresses! Oh sweet.

Of Wiggles and nappies.

She is my new found friend. She's 2 years and 2 months old and I've known her for over half a year now. We have to say bye-bye in 1 month time when I have to start my full-time clinical placement. This is OH-SO-SAD. She taught me so many things, like how to 'know' when to change nappies (like you can smell it ha.) and how to cut veges into small pieces and mix with other food so that she would eat them. I taught her some Japanese as well and she now says Sayonara (bye bye) to me whenever I go home after playing with her. She knows quite a few words and also some Mandarin as well. I admire her tofu brain. She also taught me (or the DVD taught us) all the kids songs and our current favourite is Wiggles. She calls me Shi-mi and likes to pull my hair. Well what can I say, she's in her naughty two's. It's such a struggle to take pictures with her because she likes my phone and when I want to use it she'll take it away. See even in this shot her right hand is trying to reach for my phone already. Ok, I better sleep now because I need to save my energy for tomorrow when I go play with her for the whole afternoon again!

All natural.

Ohh look at the weather outside! It's so a picnic weather. But since I'm stuck at home doing assignments, I decided to go out to my backyard and enjoy the sun with my little children who are all 10 weeks old this weekend. So it was 10 weeks ago that I had a sudden spastic idea of planting flowers and vegetables in my backyard. Well I did all the choosing of the plants and Moses had to do all the farming (good for his muscles!). They were oh-so-tiny (about 5cm) when we first bought them, but tadahh..they are like bushes now! By the way, the first picture on the left is not weeds, but they are Jack the broccolis x7. Their waist circumference is about 2+cm now, so they are not for eating yet but hopefully in a few months time they'll be on our dinner table. Oh imagine eating your children urgh. I remember they survived through weeks after weeks of heavy rain and even hail..which makes me a proud mother. The next one on the right is Billy the lettuce trio. I think they've grown healthy and big, and they'll make it to our dinner table as fresh salads very soon *muwahha*. The first Billy in the line was the smallest of the three but he's slowly catching up with the other two brothers. Last but not the least for today's post is Betty the red rose! She was bald and naked when she first came to the garden but she's beginning to grow some hair (leaves) now. The reason for planting her and her sister Florence (white rose) was so that Moses wouldn't need to go and buy me flowers but instead he can just cut some from the backyard. Ha, being economical here! But you know, it wasn't all happy stories in my little garden. Jack the snowpeas have passed away during their 3rd week of being with us, and Moses the farmer had accidentally plucked out Jack one time mistaking him for weeds. Nonetheless, the remaining children are growing bigger and stronger, and not to forget, they are organic pesticide and fertiliser-free! But because of that some caterpillars (black and big and hairy!) like to chew on the leaves of Patricks and I had to scoop up the monsters and throw them over the fence to the neighbour's yard! (haha sorry! I tried putting them away in the corner of my backyard but they came back to Patrick the next day). Anyway...happy 10-weeks birthday kids!

Lead me.

It's one of those days that I feel like blogging again. Well I have a bad history of deserting my 2 blogs after no more than 3 entries. So, this time, *fingers crossed*, I'll last a little bit longer.

It's Friday night and people outside are eating, drinking, partying, or at OCF. I haven't been to OCF for a while now but at this point in time I feel it's okay to take a break from it and have a little bit of me-myself-and-I time alone at home. I kind of like the feeling of being alone at home though. Mmm solitude. In a good way.

Feeling a bit emo and all these days from lots of things, like, final few months of uni life (for the second time, ha), sending in applications for next year's GNP program and not knowing exactly where I'll be or what I'll be doing the same time next year. Come to think of it, it's quite scary how I'll be officially registered as a registered nurse hopefully by the end of the year and working on a full shift work, because honestly, I feel I don't know much! Haha. It's one thing to be a student nurse on a placement and another thing to be a fully responsible and accountable registered nurse! And though it might be a bit early I'm also starting to think of the paths that I may want to pursue, like specialising in what areas. Paediatrics would be nice, ICU might be exciting, but mental health is a no-no for me! Then there's another issue of not knowing which hospital I'll be at. This week I had to turn down the interview in Sydney because I want to wait for SA results to come out and of course, because my man is here. Hopefully, if God willing, I'll be here! But anyhow, please start being nice to me because I may be your nurse someday! :)

On a lighter note, I love how there's this tree near my house which looks like the cherry blossom tree in Japan! It's all fluffy and pink, and with the wind the petals all fly away. Oh how pretty. It's one of those rare occasions that I recall my life back in Japan (like when I was in primary school) and how I used to walk along this street to school everyday which had lots of cherry blossom trees planted along the sides! So the Spring is here and hopefully my Jack (broccoli), Billy (lettuce), Elijah (rosemary), Kate (sweet pea flowers), Heidi (unknown flower), Betty and Florence (red and white roses) and I forgot the lavender's name...will all enjoy the warmth that the sunny days will bring.

Oooo..exciting :)

xx