Is this a fruit? Can I eat it?

My grandma never fails to humor me and provide me with a source of endless joy and laughter :)

Today, she saw some potpourri sitting on the table in our house, and she picked up some of it and asked me "Is this a fruit, can I eat it?" To which I replied "No grandma, don't eat it! It's potpourri". Not understanding the term, she asked "Hmm??", I answered "Just a decoration grandma, it can't be eaten". Disappointed, she quipped "What is it decorating? If you can't eat it just throw it out lah, no use." :P

Grandma, oh grandma...lol :D

Is it worth it?

I've been told many times before, "It's just not worth it". Chasing up after people who just don't care about you anymore and have moved on in life. It's hard cos i'm a stubborn girl, and it feels like I'm always trying my best to hang on to whatever thread of friendship that's left connecting two souls. What's more frustrating is when you're the only one initiating the effort 99% of the time.

Friendship. What is it? When you form a bond with someone in a particular place, at a particular time and phase in your life, what meaning does it hold for you? I'm not sure about everyone else, but it feels like when transitioning from one chapter to another (e.g: school to college, or college to uni, or country to country) the people around me seem to join a new circle of friends and forget the old. A reality that is hard for me to swallow. Sometimes I wonder, how can someone forget their friends so quickly? I mean, one moment you're close friends, doing everything together, and the next (maybe few months/years down the tracks) you hardly say hello to each other?

With the age of facebook, keeping in touch is now as easy as a few taps on the keyboard and a few minutes of your time. But I hate to always be the one to start "hey, long time no hear from you, how are you, how's everything...". A close close friend of mine once told me, "Why are you wasting your time, every time I see YOU posting to them, it's not like they make any effort to keep in touch back from what I see". True. Facebook is also a very destructive tool. It can really hurt one's feelings when you see your "friends" spending soooo much time on facebook, updating photos of them with their new friends and conversing with other people and doing everything under the sun BUT attempt to keep in touch with you. Clearly they're not busy considering the amount of time and updates on facebook. But I guess the friendship we once shared just isn't important anymore. It's sad, really.

But life goes on. I need to learn to let go, and start moving on myself. Or else, I will always be left behind...

Happy Fathers Day!

Today is Fathers Day and I really wished I could be back home with my dad, but I am thankful that I will be seeing him soon :) Here's to the most jovial, humorous, kind, loving, *cough* paranoid, and worry-ful man in the world! With love, your GOOD daughter! hahahahhahahhaha

And so I dedicate this poem to you Appa :)

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities
, When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so,
He called it ... Dad

-Author unknown-

Cafe Alfonso

This is my 2nd time to this wonderful cafe located at Hutt Street, and needless to say, it's definitely quickly rising to being one of my top fave brekky spots in Adelaide :) (for several reasons!)

Firstly - great ambience.

The first time my friends and I came here, we sat outdoors, and it was lovely to enjoy our meal while having the cool morning breeze sweep through our hair and the warm sunshine warm our skin. It was also heart-warming to see many families enjoying their brekkie together, some of them with their cute little doggies tagging along :) The second time around (today) we opted for indoors and I was not disappointed! Loved the classic old'school theme with black and white photos hanging on the wall :)

Secondly - great service.

The staff are so friendly, and the waiters are such gentlemen. And not to mention............cute! *giggles* Okay, okay, only one of them is. (haha, shucks, now you all know the MAIN reason I love this cafe! lol, only kidding!) Besides, it's not wrong to treat your eyes to a little candy once in a while hey? *cuci mata..haha*

Thirdly (and most importantly) - great FOOD!

Their Continental breakfast comes with a hearty serving of eggs (cooked as you like them), bacon, sausages, 2 slices of toast, mushrooms, and tomatoes :)

Today I tried 'Avvolto' which is a wrap with scrambled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, melted cheese, and hollandaise sauce and to say it was anything less than DELICIOUS would be an understatement! Yum :)

I also appreciate how they are very generous with their little packets of butter, jam, vegemite, and honey, and you can always help yourselves to more if you wish to.

Last but not least, and what I loved most about today's brekky is the awesome company :) Love my two beautiful girls, Yean and Claire Bear <3 Look forward to more brekky dates (and checking out hot waiters) with you :)

Bliss Organic Cafe

It was a chilly Saturday morning, and me and two other friends had agreed to meet up for brekky. Considering none of us had a car, and all of us were at TheVillage the night before, we set out on foot and planned to go to somewhere we haven't been before, but somewhere closeby. Our feet decided to bring us to the doorstep of 'Bliss Organic Cafe', a tiny quaint little cafe tucked away in one of the alleys of Chinatown.

When I stepped in, we immediately fell in love with the homely yet retro ambience.

And so we chose our table and seats and had a look at the menu. Here's what we ordered:

Above: Banana pancakes with maple syrup

(4 Leaf organic wholemeal super fine and 4 Leaf organic plain flour, vanilla, sunflower seeds and dried grapes, served with organic maple syrup - I added bananas as an extra)

Above: Scrambled 'eggs' with toast (and a rash of 'bacon') (inverted commas because it's actually tofu)

(silken tofu pan-fried with mushrooms, seasoned with salt and pepper, served with organic Turkish pidé and spread, with rash of 'bacon' as an extra)

Above: Tofu scramble

(head chef’s signature dish – firm organic tofu hand-scrambled with white mushrooms, organic potato chunks, organic grated carrot, organic wilted spinach, organic tomato cubes, raisins, pepitas and sunflower seeds. Sprinkled with flaxseeds and sesame seeds.)

The food itself was a little disappointing. Maybe it's because none of us were vegan to begin with, so we weren't too fond of the taste of vegan 'bacon' and 'eggs'. I really liked my pancakes (although, the menu did say that it comes with 8 pancakes, but as you can see in the picture, I was shortchanged by 2), but I don't think my two other friends enjoyed their scrambled eggs or tofu. Understandably so I guess. I tried some, and the tofu tasted like Chinese stir-fried eggs, while the eggs tasted like soggy tofu with curry powder.

Nonetheless we had a wonderful chat and enjoyed our brekkie together because it's the company you're with that counts, not the place you go or the food you eat :)

Procrastination taken to the next level

Okay, so I was given this assignment many many WEEKS ago. 1000 word 'Critical Thinking' essay on "The significance of adverse events in the Australian health care system". There were several articles given to us to read and incorporate into our essay, and these take a significant amount of time to read, digest and to extract the core 'ingredients' from. I should have attempted to do the readings maybe over the weekend at the very least, but me being me, when do I start? THE NIGHT BEFORE IT'S DUE! *collapses*

Sometimes I wonder, WHY do i procrastinate everything I do so much? I sometimes even procrastinate my procrastination! As a matter of fact, at this very second, I am wondering why on earth I'm writing this blog post when my essay is due tomorrow morning and I'm not even half way there!

I guess it all boils down to the adrenaline rush. I just can't seem to get anything done without it! And i wish that rush came earlier, but unfortunately it only comes at the 11th hour, right when I'm severely pressed for time. Same goes for exams. All I can say is, God's grace is indeed so abundant that He has allowed me to pass all my exams so far. Thank you Jesus!

Okay, I guess I better get back to my unimaginably boring and pointless assignment (please do not forward this blog post to my university's MBBS Convenor! yikes!) Let me tell you, it took me approximately 8 hours in total just to read those 4 articles provided because I kept zoning out and dozing off! Okay until next time! God bless the Australian Health Care system!

Interesting Patients

Got to see some interesting patients at the hospital today! :D

One was a middle-aged lady who had a very obvious right ventricular HEAVE and tricuspid regurgitation and pronounced P2 heart sound from primary pulmonary hypertension.

Another was a man who had suffered from a stroke and had hemiparesis and deviation of the tongue and also had diplopia!

There was another man who had Guillian-Barre Syndrome but we weren't fortunate enough to get to examine him :(

All in all, it was a good day. Am just happy that I learnt at least ONE new thing today. and that isss:

DIGOXIN produces a downsloping ST depression (a.k.a reverse tick phenomenon) on an ECG! I had NO IDEA! :D