Fire!
My sleep was abruptly cut short last Thursday night - Friday morning, to be perfectly accurate. I had just tumbled into my bed at 12am, and surrendered to the blissfulness of wandering in Dreamland when I was woken up three and a half hours later by the ear-splitting cacophony of the fire alarms ringing. At first, I thought I had accidentally set my handphone's alarm to ring at the wrong time - so, my first instinct when I blearily slid out from beneath my warm and toasty duvet was to find my handphone and to smash it into a billion tiny pieces of what used to be a communication device. To perfectly convey how conscious I am after just waking up from deep sleep, I actually walked all the way to my desk, pressed a few buttons on my phone, walked back to my bed and lay down.
It was after I pulled my duvet over myself that I suddenly realized that the alarm was still ringing. And it wasn't my phone's alarm - it was the fire alarm! My mind went from groggy-just-woke-up mode to fully-awake mode in an instant. I then literally leapt out of bed, grabbed my handphone, keys, wallet and watch and pulled a jacket over myself. At that point, I heard Wei Jin knock on my door. I shouted "Yeah, I'm coming!" and charged out of my room. We then proceeded to wake Yi Yong, my next-door neighbour, by banging on his door. After he finally emerged from his room, we went off to our fire assembly point. Once outside the main building, we met Hiromi and Li Ching. The first thing Hiromi did was to comment on my sleep-tousled hair. Hahaha! Well, it's not like I have any say in how I look after I wake up!
Everyone then proceeded to the assemby point, where we stood in the frigid morning wondering what on Earth was going on. There was plenty of speculation as to what actually triggered the fire alarm - some said that it was probably a drunk student who accidentally triggered the alarms by opening the fire escape doors whereas others thought that a student (by the most bizzare circumstances) set his carpet on fire after smoking in his room. However, the general consensus was that the whole thing was probably a false alarm. Things began to look a bit serious when the Residential Tutors announced that if we tried to sneak back in via the front path, we would be fined - firemen from two fire engines had cordoned off the front part. Whispers that there really
was a fire began to circulate.
Our uncertainty was put to rest when one of the Residential Tutors announced to us that there was indeed a fire, it happened in B Bay of the Tower Block and that there was nothing to worry about since the firemen had already handled it and they were just "cleaning up". We continued standing out there for quite some time after this announcement, and the cold Sheffield night began to take it's toll on some of us. Li Ching was starting to feel the cold and Wei Jin kindly gave his thick robes to her since his pyjamas were quite thick. I got to get pyjamas like that! Haha! Even though I was more prepared for the cold this time, I still felt it nevertheless. My upper body was kept warm and toasty by the thick jacket I threw on, but my toes were absolutely freezing since I forgot to put my shoes on!
Lurid details pertaining as to how exactly the fire actually began started to surface. There was talk of exploding ovens, drunk students, faulty wiring and even arson. I was rather interested to find out what exactly happened, but when we were finally allowed into the building again, the calls of my bed beckoned more strongly than my curiousity. I continued my interrupted sleep after reaching my room - but I was too tired to go for the sole morning lecture approximately five hours later. Being awoken in the middle of the night , standing outside in the freezing night and talking excitedly about everything and yet nothing is rather tiring stuff. Perfect excuse to skive a lecture. Hahaha! At least I went for the all the other lectures, right?
There were plenty of interesting stories to hear from my corridor neighbours as well as residents of B Bay of the Tower Block. One of my neighbours said that when he tried to awaken his neighbour after hearing the fire alarms blaring, his neighbour just opened the door, waved at him and went back into his room! The next day, his neighbour couldn't remember doing anything of the sort! To think that he slept through the whole thing without an inkling of what had happened! Another of my friends, who stayed just a few rooms away from the kitchen that caught fire, told me a truly amazing story. Apparently he didn't wake up immediately after the alarms rang, and by the time he got out of his room, he was greeted by smoke so thick that the entire corridor was shrouded in smoke. He was on the verge of panic when he saw a figure walk out of the smoke - it was the porter. The porter shouted "Get out!" and waved him towards the stairs, and he reckoned that the porter saved his life.
The funny thing about the fire was that there were no signs of how it actually started! When my friend visited the kitchen that was the source of all the panic the next day, he said that everything looked fine - although there was a nasty smell in the air. To disprove the theory of exploding ovens, the microwave oven in the room was perfectly okay. How then, did the fire actually begin? Pretty scary and exciting food for thought. Anyway, I just hope a fire won't break out in Halifax Hall again - goodness knows I could do with fewer disruptions to my sleep!
Prick Me, Prick You
Just had my ILA Small Group Work session this afternoon. It was a close call, really, as I had to rush my work for the group discussion last night because the learning objectives that were supposed to be posted on our webportal weren't up for the better part of the week. To be absolutely honest, it isn't as if I usually finish my work early anyway - although they had a lot more ground to cover this time, so I had to burn the midnight oil last night (fortified by a few mouthfuls of leftover shiraz and a few bites of Cadbury's chocolate) until I got my work done. However, upon reaching the lonely and windswept outpost that is known to us as St Thomas' Church this afternoon, my group discovered that our group's GP was absent! How can we hold a constructive, critical and medically-orientated discussion without THE MAIN MAN?!
We were pondering what to do next (to leave or to leave surreptiously via the toilet windows) when a guy walked over to our table, sat in the seat of honour usually reserved for our favourite GP and announced that he was in charge of our group today. I instantly decided that I liked his style. He just walked over, dropped a book and a piece of paper on the table, sat down in a seat that obviously screams
RESERVED! and announced that he was in charge of our table
- all without even so much as an introduction. Everyone sat rooted to the spot, transfixed by wonder. Who was this newcomer, who dared to usurp the throne of our GP? He hath not yet passeth the fury that is Group 1 - the group which can spend an hour prodding everything and yet nothing - how dare he calleth himself our Tutor?
Before anyone had enough time to pluck up enough courage to ask him
who the heck he was, he picked up the piece of paper he brought with him and began running through the ILA Learning Objectives at hyperspeed. We then settled into a routine of flicking through the pages of our self-prepared notes while he began rattling off stuff in a near-continuous flow of medico-jargon. How different from how our ILAs used to be. We used to run through the objectives one by one, discussing them at length, and our GP would prompt us to contribute by saying "Let's see what so-and-so has to say about the etiology of so-and-so disease" or something to that effect. This led to plenty of participation from everyone. Now, we just sat, flicked through our notes and nodded every now and then while our temporary tutor charged through the ILA learning topics.
When he was finally done (I noticed that he did quite an impressive job of summarizing everything into a concise presentation and not miss even the smallest details), we began to ask questions.
Whence did thou come, and from where? Turns out that he was a surgeon-in-training who was assigned to fill in the space of our tutor for today. He was supposed to take a teaching post for 6 months as part of his training. No wonder his command of the human anatomy was absolutely spot-on. Then, he took out the sharps' bin, overturned it, and shook it while medical thingamajigs fell out of the hole in the cover. The rest of us watched with mounting excitement, akin to watching someone open a Christmas present. Ooh, cannulas. And look, more cannulas! And syringes, and bottles of liquid, and alcohol swabs, and cotton balls!
After bombarding him with a few more questions about intermittent claudication, critical leg ischaemia, bypass surgery and the anatomy of the lower limb, we were more or less satisfied that we got a guy who knew his stuff. Then, out of the blue, he suddenly asked us if we wanted to draw blood from him. We were like,
whaddafuk? since it is very foolhardy to ask a couple of first years who know nuts about medicine to insert a wickedly sharp object into your arm and assume that you'll still have an arm after we were done. Someone volunteered and with our new tutor showing the way, he managed to draw out a couple of ounces of blood. Everyone was enthusiastic about drawing blood after seeing him survive the procedure. However, he only had two arms - one can only prick a person's arm so many times.
He came up with a solution - we would draw blood from each other. Wicked. After showing us the basic procedure, we then proceeded to draw blood from each other. I suppose if a person from another table looked over, they would have thought that the whole of Group 1 became IV drug abusers. Everyone was holding syringes and stabbing it into each other's arm. After that, the person who got pricked would then proceed to draw blood from the person who pricked him/her. Drawing blood is harder than it seems. Stab in at too deep and angle and you pierce through the vein completely. Stab in too shallow, and you'll be quite likely to pull the needle out when pulling the plunger of the syringe to draw blood out. Some people managed to draw blood, whereas others just gave some individuals a nasty bruise. I managed to draw a small amount before the needle slipped out.
What great fun! I think I'm starting to like syringes now - all I can think of now are thoughts of sliding the needle into the vein, not too deep an angle, watching for the "backflash", easing it inside a little, pulling the plunger backwards while holding the syringe steady, press a cotton ball on the site of insertion and gently withdraw the needle out without any lateral movement of the syringe. Argh! I'm almost, read this - almost, but not quite tempted to buy a couple and practice on myself. Hahaha!
P.S. - The Christmas mood is in the air, and I think I'm infected with the Christmas spirit for the first time in my life - I feel like nicking the Christmas tree they place near the reception and placing it my room! Haha! Tomorrow, I'm going to watch some caroling tomorrow and the Christmas lights of Sheffield! Should be great fun!
P.P.S. - Just 10 more days, and I'll be leaving on a jet plane!
My 19th Birthday!
What an interesting birthday - I reached 19 years of age in completely foreign country, with a group of friends completely different from those I have back home and in a way nothing like how my birthdays used to be celebrated all these years! Since my birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, there were no plans of celebrating at all until all my lectures were over - there was a medics' social at a club called Reflex that night. Privately, I thought that I would see out my birthday in a club, drinking a pint of beer and reflecting on things to come in a relatively quiet corner of the aforesaid club. After that, I planned to curl up on my bed, listen to some nice music and read Moore and Dalley's Clinically Orientated Anatomy - sad, I know, but I didn't really have any other books to read. My idea of a good time is to listen to music that I like and drink steaming hot green tea whilst reading a nice book on my bed - yes, I sound like an old geezer...haha!
Events deviated from my ideas on how to spend my birthday roughly an hour before dinner. Tommy sent me a message via MSN asking me if I was going to a Hong Kong Society social - I had totally forgotten about it! I signed up for the HKSoc because I was subjected to psychological influences (read - insistent cajoling) from Lisa, Ben, Nessa and the rest of the HKSoc crew who were recruiting members. My feeble excuse of "B-b-but I'm not a Hong Kongese!" was discarded by them even before the sentence completely left my mouth, but it was the pictures of
dim sum that did me in. Now, this is something that should be outlawed by the University. It is proven that the promises of good food invariably lures people into a society, no matter what the society is for. Heck, it could be a Society For The Sacrificing Of Virgin Squirrels, but if they promised to bring me to somewhere nice to eat one in a while, I'd join without a moment's hesistation.
After deliberating for a while on whether I should go for the HKSoc social, I finally decided that I would go. Firstly, the membership cards were ready for collection and I was rather curious as to how my picture turned out - I generally look weird in pictures! Secondly, they were providing potato crisps and drinks - must-haves for any self-respecting society's social. Thirdly, they were having games and karaoke. Whee. My favourite activities...yearrite. Having decided, I went down for dinner. At first, dinner seemed like the mundane affair it always is - take food, put food on tray, walk to cashier, sit down and begin to chomp. However, halfway through my meal, the rest of the gang (Mark, Wei Jin, Tommy, James, Jun Xue, Rexanna, Noemi, Li Ching, Brandy) suddenly shoved their desserts (chocolate cake, if I remember correctly) in front of me and began singing "Happy Birthday!". Hahaha! It was a pleasant surprise - but it was embarrassing being at the centre of attention - we were in the Hall's dining room and everybody were looking over!
After that, someone suggested that everyone should meet in my room at 11pm for a small "birthday bash". The rest agreed, and now I had an impromptu party to plan! Well, to be honest, there wasn't much planning to do, really. The rest had already bought a cake and all we needed were drinks. Since Mark, Tommy and myself were going to the HKSoc social, our plan was to buy two bottles of wine at Somerfield's after the social and head back before 11pm - I didn't feel like going to the medics' social anymore! After dinner, we then headed to the HKSoc, where I collected my membership card (true to form, my picture looks weird - but acceptable nonetheless), ate tonnes of potato crips, swigged tonnes of pop and joined in a quiz. However, while I was there, Lisa managed to persuade me to go to the medics' social for a while. I duly left the responsibilities of procuring the wine to my good mates Mark and Tommy, experts in choosing good liqour. We then left for the medics' social after meeting up with Suresh, Max and Jessica and finally reached Reflex after picking up Sohan and gang from Victoria Hall.
Once at the club, Suresh and Sohan bought me drinks since it was my birthday, despite my efforts to tell them that I'm quitting my old habits of drinking huge amounts of alcohol in one night. Hahaha... I think my liver probably won't last through my time in medical school if I keep on doing that, so now my policy on drinking is one pint per night or two or three small glasses of wine. Anyway, thanks for the drinks, guys! The music and atmosphere at the club wasn't bad - the music wasn't techno or house that all clubs love to play, but normal pop and songs from the 80's. I ended up spending around an hour there, until I had to leave in order to make it back in time for my "room party". Jessica and Lisa followed me back as well, although Suresh would be joining us later. On the way, Jessica and Lisa bought potato crisps for the party. We rushed back and reached my room 15 minutes late! Hahaha!
When we reached my room, no one was there - no big surprise, since I reached my room 15 minutes late! I went to Mark's room and he sent out the summons to the rest. And before I knew it, my room was filled with people. My room isn't the largest of rooms to begin with, and with about 15 people in it, everyone was packed like sardines! There wasn't enough seating, so many people just stood and talked. When Hsin Yu and Su-Ann came, they had the brilliant idea of smearing Mark's shaving cream liberally on my face as a birthday "present"! I'm not complaining, this beats having whipped cream on one's face or getting the crap beaten out of you in a typical Johorian 3-4! Haha! We served cake on tissue paper since we had no plates. We then ended up talking until the wee hours of the night - until someone came to complain about our noise level! Haha! Everyone left at around 1.15am, and I promptly took a bath and collapsed on my bed. What a night...hahaha!
Hsin Yu prepares to help me shave. I was very, very frightened indeed. Someone suggested that she shave off my eyebrows - luckily it never happened, or else I'd hide in my room until they regrew!
The cake and I. A chocolate overdose was imminent - I had chocolate cake for dessert and now, chocolate cake again?!
Some of the people who made my birthday truly special. Thanks everyone, those in the photo and those not captured on film (you know who you guys are)!
Many thanks to:
1. My family - thanks for all your birthday wishes!
2. Rexanna, Noemi and Ah Wong for your birthday cards!
3. Mark and Tommy for choosing the two bottles of excellent wine - you guys rock in your tastes in wine!
4. Suresh and Sohan for the beer - no wonder it's hard for me to stop drinking!
5. Jessica and Lisa for buying the crisps and coming all the way to my room from Reflex to celebrate my birthday!
6. All those who celebrated my birthday with me and made it a special day!
Last but not least...
7. My friends back in Malaysia or overseas (ex-EC, ex-TCSJ) who wished me a happy birthday!
