X-mas in Malaysia
Mood:  special
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
Prior to my departure to the cold Netherlands, Liza & I decided we ought to get some pics of how X-mas is celebrated in Malaysia. As could be seen from the pictures I posted last year, it's already quite obvious that this festive season is not forgotten or ignored. One of the nicest pics we took was the one of the gingerbread-woman.

Top Hat Room
Mood:  suave
Topic: Night life & other action
Last month we had the 3-yearly international O&G symposium of FIGO in KL. A chance too good to be true. I presented a poster about a Hodge pessary ending up in the abdomen and I also volunteered to be speaker coordinator, which unfortunately deprived me of the opportunity to visit some of the presentations that interested me most. I happened to meet three of my former consultants. One of them was part of the very beginning of my career in O&G in the very first hospital where I worked as a Medical Officer. Having always been on good terms with him we enjoyed our encounter and decided to have a dinner later on. Due to extreme rain all three of us battled our way through the streets that had turned into floods all over Chinatown. Since all of us had a good time, we decided to have another dinner together with Liza on the last day of the symposium.
That Friday we all gathered and headed for one of the few remaining colonial buildings in KL, the "Top Hat Room". A small, charming colonial villa, almost opposite of KLCC. We enjoyed a nice meal, after which we proceeded to the first floor. In an attic-like setting, the jazz band had already started playing for a while. It’s been another splendid night, and it’s always good to meet up with old friends and acquaintances that have inspired us in the past…

34 ?!
Mood:  amorous
Topic: Night life & other action
Yes, I know, that was about a week ago. but I can’t just let it pass by unnoticed. I didn’t elaborately celebrate that 34th year. But it was defenitely a quality celebration. My little gem had prepared a special surprise for me in the form of my favourite substance; ice(-cream). It truly was a lovely surprise.

And I love my little gem for all these small gestures of affection. It has opened a whole new world for me, for I have never felt this special before. I think, having both been through quite some rough times, we are able to appreciate each other even more. Sure, I know that many things in life don’t last forever… but I hope that a good thing like this will stay with us for the longest time. It will not be easy. There will be struggles, juggling busy career while establishing a relationship and having a social life. And for sure there will be some other challenges too. But also for sure, this is more than worth it to give this our best efforts.

Judgmental
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: (scary) hospital stories
Ok, here’s the deal; on a regular basis we male gynae’s have to defend our existence in the job. Especially in this local setting it is a quite common thing, whereas in most European countries it is not such a big issue perse. Although I can imagine this, I never fail to be amazed, judging the way I see most of my female colleagues go about. They are, in average, way less gentle (if not just plain rougher) than most of our male gynae staff. It is as if they are trying to make a statement such as; “Hey, if I can go through a (i.e. painful) process of labour, you might just as well cope with me now.” Come to think of it, I've heard some of them actually say that... Whereas men probably have an approach such as; “Since I don’t know what it feels like, I might just as well be extra careful and gentle”.
A nice equivalent to this matter I couldn’t withhold from you all. According to a new survey, women say they feel more comfortable undressing in front of a man than they do undressing in front of a woman. They say that women are too judgmental, where, of course, men are just grateful.
(Jay Leno)

Inside-out, upside-down
Mood:  bright
Topic: (scary) hospital stories
Was doing a caesarean the other day, and my HO asked me whether it was ok for her to remove the placenta. Sure, no prob, I said and I instructed her. Everything went smooth, I turned my attention to the cute baby and next thing I know when I look again, suddenly the uterus is inside-out… Both the HO’s as well as the gas-MO’s heart stop for a moment and my heart rate goes up as I struggle to put the darn thing back in its original position. Finally – plop – I succeed and the rest of the procedure is uneventful. I can’t help but exclaiming to the HO; “Thanx for adding flavour to my life”. Upon the disappointed look on her face I realise she must have been as anxious as me. Don’t worry, I tell her; it would probably even have happened if I took the placenta out… And see it like this; at least know we both added up on our experience…

The Banquet; who killed the empress ??
Mood:  amorous
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
Spent a lovely evening @ L’s place yesterday. We finally got to watch The Banquet, which we had missed out on due to rapid disappearance from the theatre. Allegedly there is supposed to be an analogue to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I guess I’ll have to read that one first before I can fully grasp the story, but maybe it was also just because I was tired. Of course the choreography was great, but the only thing dissatisfying was….. who killed the empress in the end ?! For all the assassins had been assassinated already. MMhhh… anyone who thinks they can give us the answer, please feel free to comment ;op
Since it was late already and we were also already cuddled up, we decided I might just as well stay over. Later that night apparently sis came back a bit tipsy. Not that much, since she was still very well in control. Well, most important thing was she had a great evening and a chance to get her mind distracted from troublesome things. Good for her !

Hospital FBI
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: (scary) hospital stories
Ever since I performed a pseudo-military coupe / putsch on the making of the night duty schedule I’ve felt as if I’m in charge of the Malaysian anti-corruption agency. Unbelievable what some colleagues will do to reduce their number of night shifts, up to paying colleagues to do their night duties in their name. When V. asked me why I gave her 8 shifts in November I told her it was because of her low cumulative, having only done 6 last month. “But I did 7 shifts last month”, she exclaimed. I bluntly said “Nope, don’t forget you pushed one of them to J.”…. The look on her face, when she realised I had found out…. No corruption; everybody the same number of calls, I told her. Takes a bloody Dutch Fluffy dude to get things straightened out in this cuckoo-place…

Dogs in Sweaters
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
I’m sitting here in Bodegas, enjoying my nice Illy? double espresso machiato, while having a good view out on the street. The not too loud background lounge-music mixes with the voices of people spending a relaxed afternoon out. Across the street there is a salon. Not very busy, since it’s a public holiday, however, the people inside are very entertained. A small dog wearing some kind of sweater is testing the strength of the jeans of one of the salon workers. The dog, having put its teeth in the leg of the jeans, is dragged over the floor by the salon employee, making all the other people inside laugh. Good times, good times…
I’m passing time here, having been dragged out by a not so extremely close friend, who needed to talk to me but also had to teach a music class @ the same time. Never mind, gives me some time to spend in this rather attractive environment. The only thing I wonder about is what she wanted to discuss. She fits perfectly in the category of remarkable people that somehow always cross my path, so it’s probably gonna be a remarkable story…

Wet-wet-wet-2
Mood:  vegas lucky
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
Sitting behind my laptop and struggling to get my poster done, the sudden gush of wind was a welcome cooling-down. To make it even better I opened the windows in the little hallway to maximise the ventilation. Oopss.... wrong move, as minutes later water started pouring down from the sky, in a few seconds changing the whole entrance in a mini-swimming pool. Next thing I know I'm mopping the floor, trying to prevent the water from entering the apartment and right away flowing to the balcony on the very other side of the room.
I managed to survive, though getting wet feet. Hopefully in a little while I won't have to worry anymore about ventilation. That is, if I get another apartment in this place. Problem 1 is finding it and then comes nr 2; a proper roommate. But it'll be good to have a place of my own though and I kind of am looking forward to it. Talking about housing; new tenants are presenting themselves already for my house in the Netherlands. They are even gonna renovate the kitchen, which unfortunately I have to pay for. But at least the place isn't empty and I will have some rental income to pay for the mortgage. That'll keep the bank happy huh-huh....
Anyway, after all the watery business, on top of that managed to finish up both my poster for the symposium, and the article for British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. Such a relief, @ least one deadline less.... I'll put the poster on the webb as soon as the FIGO 2006 is over, so everybody can enjoy hihihihi....

Spicy Mistress
Mood:  suave
Topic: Night life & other action
The only thing I'm unfaithful to is my blog. NOT that my life is that exciting, but still. I haven't told everybody yet that the movie "Mistress of spices" is another jewel that kept me and my fellow-movie-holic very entertained. True, it was a movie about cooking and food, something that to me is right-away appealing. But it was the fairytale-like atmosphere that got me all cought up. And yes; I am a sucker for this specific kind of romantic movies. On top of that it had so much in common with this other kitchen-cooking-love-movie that I saw many, many years ago in the smallest theatre of Maastricht; "Como agua para chocolate (Like water for chocolate)" based on the book by Laura Esquival. Yeah, "Het Kneipke", the classic, small theatre in 50's style, where you could take your nice special Belgium beer with you inside the theatre and have nobody grumbling about it. Aahhh Good memories for sure, when I was still a medical student with the only thing to worry about how to pass the next exam.