Picnic Royale

Picnicking - London style.

Or perhaps, even Royal style, because we had ours one very sunny Saturday morning at Regent's Park, which happens to be one of the Royal Parks in London.

The last time we had been on a picnic was back in Sept '09, which was a pretty impromptu thing in Hyde Park, also planned by Daisy Hoo, but with much less 'grandeur' and preparation, i.e. alot less food, no picnic mats to sit on and no frisbee.

This Easter weekend, however, we upped our picnic standards a couple of notches with MORE food than the 6 of us could finish:

The HUGE spread - credits to Lynn who painstakingly prepared most of it

The Girls, who happen to be 2 sets of BFF's :)

T'was a lovely day!!

With lovely flowers in bloom as well

And because Jody had been eyeing the frisbee Bao donated to me last year from the start of the picnic, Lynn and I got roped into a pathetic game of frisbee with the guys, partly because much of my movement was restricted by my VERY LONG skirt, and partly because we girls were just lousy athletes.

(Pictures from Lynn's amazing Canon G11. Much thanks.)

The weather was picture perfect that day, perhaps a tad too sunny for April, as though it was already summer, but as usual, my efforts at trying to be a hero and going out bare-shouldered with no cover-up left me with red imprints on my back the following day, and two pale streaks where my spaghetti straps were.

What happened to the lesson learnt at Wimbledon, ey Shing?

Have been embracing the Easter break to the fullest this year, a very different, relaxing, other end of the spectrum from my super hectic 2-holidays-crammed-in-one-break last year.

And on Wednesday, we head to the hometown of William Shakespeare.

More pictures to come. Watch this space :)

The First Days of Spring

These days when the sun is out and the current stat count is T-4 days till Easter Break, we have pretty much abandoned all medical knowledge and discipline to read. Seriously, goodness knows how long it has been since I have picked up a medical book.

So with all thoughts of Obs & Gynae completely abandoned (anything learnt in placement this week will be doomed, I tell you), more traipsing around London continued with Lynn and YL.

Notes, Music and Coffee - awesome place tucked away in Covent Garden, and definitely one of my better efforts at photo-taking

Mirror Images

Flat White

And from coffee to Flavoured Belgian Beer / Apple Cider post-exams last Wednesay:

YL's Cider and My Fruli (new-found Favourite)

And on a fine Sunday, while people were busy pounding London's roads for the long-awaited London Marathon, we leisurely sidled down East (Central) London, across the Thames to London Bridge

Stopping in front of some tulips along the way

And rediscovering our Polka Dot craze

The first days of Spring are truly here to stay. And as much as our week's worth of placements are completely doomed due to our lack of focus and End- of- Term moods, I say 'Sod It' for now.

Sun, Spring, Flowers, Awesome friends and one of the prettiest cities in the world.

And to top it all off, a virtual showdown between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon this Thursday to finish off the term:

What better way to prepare for this year's Wimbledon than Top Spin Move?

The Real Winner

Unbeaten this year.... invincible, to say the least.

That is my Djoker for you :)

A 24 match winning streak, and STILL winning!

What started off as a disbelief in him reaching YET another final, and declaring adamantly that he would stand no chance against the King of a Spaniard Rafa Nadal, proved immediately where my loyalties (and heart) will always lie, the moment I watched the final set showdown between these two.

Instantly, I knew. Once a fan, always a fan.

Djoker must have sensed my escalating frustration with Liverpool and decided to give me something to cheer about this season, sports-wise.

And to quote:

'The real winner today has to be Tennis, as a sport. Both Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic deserve equal credits for a fabulous final'

And for the cherry on top of the cake, we decided to tweet Djoker to congratulate him. Different approaches, but both seambursting-laughter-worthy. Lol.

Let's go now, Nole! This is the Real Winner you were made out to be.

And it helps to put more smiles on my face as well :)

Anchoring Heuristic

I thought this weekend would never come.

The end of this past week was eventful for me. For one, I finally managed to complete my last Mini-Cex with a Consultant, which I had been having near nervous breakdowns each end of the week about - which would account to about 4 in total - because it was THAT difficult for me to get hold of a Consultant who was willing to watch me examine someone and stick to his word at that.

Hence I had horrendously bad moods most Thursdays in Guildford, because I was going home to London for the weekend with a failure, YET again. Which might have somehow contributed to the fact that I only associated it with negative feelings.

And eventually, it was only natural to hate Paeds.

Perhaps hate is too strong a word. Maybe STRONGLY dislike.

And then on Wednesday when I got my final CEX signed off, I started reflecting and realised, retrospectively, that perhaps.....perhaps it was not Paediatrics per se, but ME after all.

The fact that I had started off thinking that I would not fare well with kids, and my mounting frustration with not being able to get my final CEX done, had turned into an anchoring heuristic. And as we all know, the mind is larger than life. It plays tricks. And I am possibly a master of mind games - being able to continually trick myself into believing something or the other just because I wanted to.

I have plodded millions of steps along this path of life, in hopes of achieving my lifelong dream of becoming this professional provider of healthcare and medicine, and there are many times such as these that when given the chance to pause and ponder, I wonder if I will ever be cut out to be that cool-as-cucumber doctor that I have admired so much, or if I ever do - which field I would be truly passionate about...for a lifetime.

I have anchored myself into thinking I love Cardiology, so much so that I have omitted the fact that it takes alot more to be a Cardio God than just a large-eyed Med Student who spends more time daydreaming than improving knowledge about Paediatric Cardiology, for instance.

At the end of the day, we shall see which path leads me to whichever destination....in the hope that I do get somewhere in terms of my career. And for the moment, anchoring heuristics are possibly more unhealthy than they might make out to be. Or perhaps, it is just that in my efforts to build a stronger personality, I have incorporated some sort of bullheadedness into me as well.

Whoever said things got easier the faster you grew up? Lol.