Cat-doc

Resident cats.
There are some strays which always loiter and live around a particular area. Around my place there are 2 such "resident" cats. They took awhile to warm up to me. It used to be them running away to hide when i was a mile away, but now they just stare at me when i walk pass them.
Sometimes they pop by to "visit", staring in from the glass door and peeking at what we are doing inside.
I've given them personal names.
One is "Mr meow meow" - as it always meows when i walk pass.
It's good buddy is called catdoc.....cos i just like that name.

They hang out beneath the goods truck from the electrical store during rainy days and laze around near the tree during sunny ones. They also curl into a massive ball together at night when they sleep.

They are the resident cats around our place.

Optimism

Things have been looking up and good at the work place recently.
Getting used to the running of things and the regulars.

One issue marring this is the case of the missing elixir....hmmmm....suspicions abound.
Looking forward to the event this weekend and the excellent meal ahead!

:D

Cityviewers!

Teddybearwife and myself bought Cityview on our first few viewings in search of a place to stay a few years ago. Both our parents loved the layouts and it was a nice chance to get a HDB before the salary cap was reached.

Currently it's looking to be a great buy indeed. Not in the property-market sense but in the kampung spirit sense! A few residents, i believe TX and gang started a forum for future residents. Word of mouth spread and the forums became rather hot. Discussions ranging from building updates to mattresses to soccer were debated on the forum.

Recently we also had a mini gathering of sorts at Ed's Nasi Lemak stall. Teddybearwife was very excited and pleasantly surprised that there were so many people who turned up! She also met her primary school classmate there! It's nice to have great neighbours. Looking forward to moving in !! :D

Local tourism

Have been trying to arrange a few weekends off to spend time with family and friends.

I also just happened to notice that there are quite a many fun and interesting places in Singapore to visit and explore.

1. Henderson wave, treetop walk, Mount Faber. Back to nature walks and good cardiovascular exercise to boot. Surprisingly picturesque and refreshing. Would definitely go back again to explore the rest of the ridge with teddybearwife.
2. Mint toy museum at 26 seah street. We were looking at this place for ages and finally decided to visit it. The admission price of 15 bucks was rather steep in our opinion, however, the museum brought back many fond memories of our childhood toys, nostalgia at it's best. Several peculiar exhibits were on display as well. 5 floors of fantasy and fun! We also got a souvenior for a friend's birthday there.
3. Expo sales!! How we wished we stumbled on these sales sooner. Teddybearwife n mom dragged me along to the Robinson's sale and i was shocked to see such great discounts!! Most things were half price and some bargains were even better than GSS!! Bought truckloads of snacks, some pillows, toiletries and the women got shoes =.=.

Looking forward to other weekends where we will continue to explore the island!

National Day

It's Singapore's National Day soon. Brings back many memories of last year's national day in which we were providing medical cover. The best of which were getting to know many new and FUN people through the torturing course of having 13 weekends go up in smoke. Spending 15 hrs together every saturday makes for lots of time to do rubbish and talk nonsense. Still have fond memories of Ant stuffing his face with 4-5 boxes of KFC, WL queuing multiple times for Old Chang Kee and R trying his best to bleed the Milo van dry. The best is still HL doing personal training with the jerry cans!! :D LOLOL

I'm also constantly absolutely amused by wife's preoccupation with national day. During the month of August she would start singing national day songs, play with the flags, recites the pledge....the list goes on. =.= This happens every year and she yearns to go to the parade every year. (which she did last year when i managed to grab some tickets) Me on the other hand hate the squeeze at the venues and would rather stay at home playing Call of Duty/Starcraft II and watching the parade on TV at the same time.

Happy National Day Singapore.

Parking charges

The nice and chirpy "Today" newspaper auntie passed me one copy of the free daily this morning as usual. The front page was the usual weekly advertorial. However, opening the papers i was hit with the news that night parking charges are to be doubled from 2 to 4 bucks.

Okayyyy......does anyone out there see this as a solution to anything?? The powers-that-be seem to think that raising prices for everything is a solution to everything and then some. I mean...WTF BBQ ???? This is the presumed response to frequent complaints by residents that there aren't enough parking lots around the neighbourhood and that they need to park further away from their homes. This is especially true in my HDB estate as well.

There are 2 main problems. 1. Too freaking many cars. (A sign of affluence, which isn't necessarily a bad thing), 2. Not enough parking lots. (which is a rather bad thing) So correct me if i'm wrong, does increasing the night parking solve anything? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Most of the cars parked at night do belong to residents already and non-residents who park overnight are mainly the minority. I mean which idiot will park in Toa Payoh and take a bus back home to Woodlands anyway?

Raising COEs which are already done may have an impact on this issue down the line. Ideally, increasing parking lots ie. more multi storey carparks are the best solution. However, costs and land area are to be considered carefully. But really, in no way does increasing the night parking do anything to this issue....i just don't get it....sighh

Exercise

Starting a new exercise routine recently. Been putting on weight, piling on the pounds man.
Bike has been repaired and back on track. Bought new running shoes too! After 2 weeks of cycling and running, i do feel more energised and fitter. I also feel less lethargic during the day.

Anyway, now the CEO of a Singapore restructured hospital has put obesity as a KPI for his staff and obese doctors wouldn't get promoted. Although i feel it is a wrong way to approach the issue but the notion should be emphasized nonetheless. This is as doctors tend to neglect their health due to their busy schedules. (which in most cases is just a case of being too lazy....i'm one of the best examples..lazyass)

THE MAIN ISSUE NOW IS TO GET LAZYASS TEDDYBEARWIFE TO START EXERCISING TOO!!

Reconnection

Managed to re-connect with a good friend overseas again and discovered the wonders of Gmail chat! Talking to him again really brings forth the feeling of "the grass is greener on the other side". Putting aside everyone's personal problems, having travelled extensively, he seems to be having the time of his life. Experiencing different cultures and customs, meeting different people and of course visiting many interesting locations all make for an exciting life! Sometimes i do wish to be able to travel more......

Anyways to HK-fren-soon-to-be-middle-eastern-fren, good luck and have fun ! Random heroes FTW.

Movie for tonight : The Blind Side...hope its good.

Flood conspiracy theory (LOL)

The talk of the town recently has been the spate of flash floods around our sunny island Singapore. Most people are infuriated~!!! *Teddybear--ROARRRRZZ* People are hanging the PUB out to dry!!

Teddybeardoc's brain is filled with stuffings and cotton, and thus has a different perspective regarding this issue. He thinks that the current amount of rainfall has been dealt with superbly by our current drainage system previously. What has changed recently? Is PUB trying to hide something from the public?

IS THERE A MUTANT OCTOPUS-TEDDYBEAR-MONSTER IN OUR SEWERS BLOCKING THE DRAINAGE ??

ps : teddybeardoc just watched "The Host", an excellent korea monster flick. :D hehehehe

Flushing the dead

There's an interesting article in the papers today regarding plans by undertakers to dissolve corpses of the dead in alkaline solutions and flush them into the sewage system. The water would then be recycled !!??

This reeks of futuristic horror movies. Granted this method is more environmentally friendly compared to cremation, I doubt this would ever be passed in Singapore. Our religious cultures would definitely deem this as blasphemy. This has been approved in some states of the USA already.

However Motherbear used to say, "Waste not time and effort honouring the dead. You should have made them happy when they were alive. A quiet prayer and thanks is all is needed." Seems like she might favour this method.... food for thought...

Present 2

The present arrived surprisingly early for wifey!

Glad she liked the present. It's a new Prada wallet, in pink, her favourite colour. Came by registered mail and Mamabear received it.

Teddybeardoc and Duffy admiring the wallet above.

She complimented by taste in fashion as well. :D

Present

Teddybeardoc was coerced by wife to reveal the online surprise!! After much torture and resistance he finally gave in.

Glad that she is very excited about it too!

Time to hit the books again....

Maybe take a nap first...

I want to drink Koi bubble tea !! =.=

School fees

Recently read Ubercoolkias post on PEG (pre-employment grants) and the particular part on medical school fees brought back some "fond" memories.

Our YLLSOM (Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine) fees are in the range of 80k-100k per year depending on which year you enrol. After the "subsidy" (which is supposedly 80%), students pay around 15-20k per year. For aeons, many batches of students have pondered why our med school fees are so exorbitant compared to other institutes overseas.

During our school years, our tutors said they are paid only a token sum for teaching. (Can't support this with any evidence though :P) There was even an inquiry by our student council during our year regarding the fees and requesting for a breakdown per year/semester. The school told us in no simple terms to "bugger off". No explanation given.

To be fair, at the end of the day, the amount we pay is comparable to most other institutes after the "subsidy". However, the point of contention comes after that --- the 5 year bond after housemanship. For the large proportion of doctors, its not a problem at all since they most plan to stay in the system. The issue comes when a small proportion want to exit the system, be it to become a GP or to do something else altogether.

You might say : " Punish them for depriving other deserving would-be-doctors". However, people change, perspectives change, priorities change...

You might reply : " Damn them for changing their priorities half-way then..."

Which brings back the question why was it 80k per year in the first place? Why are they unable to provide a breakdown? Why won't they provide a breakdown? Why won't they explain themselves......

Oh well, some of life's mysteries.

On a brighter note, teddybeardoc bought an online surprise for teddybearanaesthesiologist!! LOL ... hope she likes it!

Update!!

New updates for the few readers and close friends out there ! :D

Teddybeardoc has recently married teddybearanaesthesiologist after many years of dating and is currently enjoying marital bliss. Currently in the midst of doing business and trying to study for the upcoming exams. Life is moving along fine and teddybeardoc hopes things will get better soon.

More updates soon !!!