A different kind of posting;

Sometime in April, May and June, I had my semester 6 posting at a few specialty places. It was one of a kind and unforgettable.

Now let me tell you my story.
1.
Our first stop was to Tanjung Rambutan, at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta (HBUK). It was for our mental health (module) posting. 

We've been to...
-the psycho-geriatric ward
-the normal ward (Ward 2 & 3)
-rehabilitation wards (Ward 7 & 8)
-the ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) room
-the library and
-the centre where the recovering patients actually WORK - making handicrafts for visitors, assembling flowers, tailoring and so much more. They are actually trained to adapt to the working life when they are discharged later. When I mentioned that they are TRAINED, each of them has a punch card and respective off day just like a normal worker. /impressed/

I have bought some souvenirs from the centre because hands down, all the handicrafts were really  impressive!

There were a few dramas during our time being posted there. A few hurdles rose, it kinda shook each of us as the drama was nothing small but a dang serious thing that all of us cannot forget. Nevertheless, I was so glad that we went through together as a team, never pointed fingers to anyone, instead solved it together as one. :)

When we were there, we stayed at the hostel situated a kilometer away from the hospital. Speaking of THAT, I shared a room with my dear (P)s - Prissy and Pau and we sort of had a blast sleeping and giggling together every night. HAHAHAHA. 

I can never forget the 'bugs' moment, 'cats, cats everywhere'  conversation, 'omg it is lizard!' situation, the scorching heat days, the 'shit smell' story during one of those midnights, my burnt fan story, and those nights when we practised (our Hokey Pokey dance) for the 'party' on the last day of our posting! lulz.

Such great memories, man.

But what really left an impact on me was a few touching moments that we had gained during our posting experience. One of patients there actually handwritten us a letter in Mandarin Chinese, to thank our company and presence. I mean... we were only in each designated ward for a couple of days and all we did was just talking, spending time doing activities with them and doing nothing much, really. To the point that we were appreciated is just :'). 

Actually to be honest, seeing patients laughed happily and seeing them changed from being quiet to engage themselves with us in most of the activities was one of our best accomplishments!

However, reading patients' documents on their past history and hearing them telling us made me feel very upset. Broken relationships, abandoned family, inability to cope with stress, and their frequent questions to us, "Where are my children?" and "When can I go home?" really teared the inner me apart.
I was also shocked to see those mentally ill patients who are placed at the psychogeriatric wards. Some of the shocking habits (I wish not to disclose here) were very depressing and these two words 'human values' really striked me bad and I have reflected so much from it.

But one definite lesson that I have learnt was,


"Each of the patient there despite having mental illness deserves to receive all the human rights, respect, nonjudgmental comments and treatments. We all (regardless whether we are healthcare providers or just simple human being) have to always be empathy, sensible, wise, fair and sensitive. Be a human being to another human being."


I will on and off read back this invaluable thought and remind myself to be grateful, to be all of the above said.

... On the last day, after the party that we organised for the patients, I was quite reluctant to leave but I guess two weeks was impactful enough to let me learn. The only shame part was that we did not get to go to any of the admission wards, that is the Wad Kemasukan Lelaki/Perempuan. Cuz' we were told that there were more acute cases that we can see there. Oh wells, no luck for us then.

14 days but so much of memories.


__
2.
Second stop was at Petaling Jaya - Alzheimer's Disease Foundation Malaysia.
We had our Healthy Ageing (module) posting at there. No doubt, it was another memorable posting that I shared with my classmates.

Basically, what we did there was quite routinised.
The morning was started off with 'brain-gym exercise', then followed by morning breakfast for the clients, then karaoke session and arts and crafts session until lunch. After lunch there will be interactive games planned by the ADFM staffs for all the clients to spend their time in the afternoon while they wait for their loved ones to fetch them back from the centre.

Looking at the display at the memorial wall, I was impressed by the handicrafts that the Alzheimer clients made during arts and craft session. So artistic and creative I give them all a thumbs up! We were there for two weeks -in which we mainly observed during the first day of posting, then subsequently (slowly) taking over from the staffs to organize the activities by our own. We did not adjust/alter much (just change some content of) the routinised activities (slightly) because it might cause confusion especially for those clients with Alzheimer's disease. 

..
Truth be told, it was one of the most relaxing postings I have ever had. Spending time interacting with the clients made me happy.

I still remember encouraging Mr. W in one of those A&C sessions because he was feeling quite timid and low self esteem at first. But with constant motivation and support, I was glad to have boosted up his self confidence that he was all smiling from ear to ear after his 3D (DIY) dinosaur, "Long Life" (he named it himself) was properly done. 

Shortly after that, he invited me for a dance during one of those karaoke sessions, lol. I was taken aback but at the same time I was  genuinely touched for such gesture. :') This 'bravo' client has wonderful  smile, sings beautifully and he was one of those inspiring people I met whom I won't forget.

And to conclude this posting, a major thanks to all the ADFM staffs for being so nice, friendly and accommodating. All of you have such caring heart yourselves, please keep it up the excellent job and may God bless you all always. :)

People often ask me, "So when you were talking to people with Alzheimer's, they often forget what they did/say thus they always repeat, don't they?"

Yes. They forget, thus we are there to remind them, to care for them. Caring for people with Alzheimer's is not easy but think back how your parents took care of you when you were young, that's how exactly we should take care of them. They might be forgetful, misplaced things, clumsy, hard to please, but with patience, compassion and great amount of love, you will get through this. Get a respite care when you need, take a break when you're tired.

Also, don't forget to offer your hugs and kissed to your loved ones (although they have Alzheimer's disease)! It is an important physical affection, they will feel happy just like us normal human beings. We feel loved whenever our dear ones gave us a touch/hug/kiss, don't we? :)

"Although they can never remember what we did to them, they certainly will not forget how we made them feel." :) :)

These are some of the lessons I have learnt through a 'Alzheimer's disease-caregiver' talk and also during this posting.
__


3.
Next up, Management posting.
One word : Stressful.

Super, super stressful actually.
Having to juggle between workload (research, incidental-reflective writings), tasks (Team leader, medication nurse, runner), coping with functional nursing, work shifts, tiredness, long distance travel... those days surely weren't easy.

BUT the interesting part of the posting was surprisingly the night shifts days. Hahaha! I must declare that I was one of those who didn't drink a sip of coffee yet survived those wee-and-dawn hours with so much style and pride. #shamelessconfessionhere
Oh well, it was an experience but I am not too sure whether I can cope in the near future. Imagine night shift today, then afternoon shift the next day, etc?

And another incidence I will not forget is definitely 'Dexamethasone 1mg.' Please remember forever, pk.

Also, I'd like to thank some of the staffs there who taught me patiently on how TS Hospital actually works in terms of management and also C.I. for giving me good input for nursing tasks such as passing over report. Despite the struggles that we went through, I still thank YOU olls. :)

___

4. 

Klinik Kesihatan Pedas is next! *woots*

Actually I wasn't expecting a lot for this posting because I had no time to expect to be honest. Hahaha but going back to Seremban feels great. That was my last time staying at Bukit Rasah at Uncle D's. Last time intruding clinical school like nobody's business and last time being member of the Rasah neighbourhood! :)

Community posting was surprisingly fun for me. We started off with school visits and clerking pregnant mummies as well as kids in the first week. It was my first time giving vaccines (MR and DT) to school children. Albeit feeling super nervous, surely it was a cool experience. :)) Subsequently we went for home visits for antenatal and postnatal cases. Pedas is situated near to Rembau, a small town not far away but houses around are made of wood and this small town has a lot of 'kampung' feel which I lovelovelove.

So during home visits, we clerked the patient, checked on the babies, did some anthropometric measurements, updating mum and child's progress in the very important (pink and blue) book that every mum and child suppose to have. On the last week of this posting, we also did a 'mopping' session, meaning we traveled to houses to enquire the families on the updated immunisation status of their children. As you all knew, diphtheria cases went viral due to parents refused to vaccinate the child last July.

"Vaccinations are very important, dear parents. Bring your children to the nearest clinic to get the jab if any of them missed a dose/hasn't taken any vaccines before! Please have a thought about it, it is always better be safe than sorry."

... Back to the story, during the 'mopping' session, we went visit houses near the estates and railway track. Along the journey, we met some friendly chickens, running goat, a family of dogs, cute kittens , a unique duck, an active squirrel and many many palm trees!

Ahh the 'kampung' feel. Love, love! 

Hands down again, this is definitely one of the best postings that I will not forget! Special thanks to all the KKIA staffs for being so amazing and patience in teaching us the proper way of clerking pregnant mums and kids. Thanks to Mdm L and Pn K for always encouraging us to try and do a lot of hands on. FYI, community nurses are very EMPOWERED and basically they are the ones who run the clinic, other than the other healthcare providers like DUH. /proud/

Also, I will not forget the good times I had together lunching and decorating the 'breastfeeding' room with my classmates. :)

Such a memorable posting. That's all for this post. Till then, y'all!

xx

Golden and seized ;

I still remember posting this 4 years ago at Facebook.

Fast forward 3 years later....

I found an opportunity...

A great opportunity that appears just perfectly right in time..

seized it before it silently went away...

and ...

here 

are

the 

OUTCOMES!

:D

A huge thank you to Ray for borrowing me his precious camera and lenses (D5100, 50mm and basic kit lens) in order for these to be produced! :D

Endless gratitude to Kah Heng and Chia Yen for joining this mini adventure, and for saying YES to my humble request! They are both very sporting and supportive to my idea and request, so tolerating, so humble and very kind people! :))

...

The moment when they approached me to snap a photo of them during a graduation ceremony, that was the time I knew that they are the first couple that I'm gonna approach when it comes to doing my first couple photoshoot!

There was a lot of give and take during the process, I almost thought that the plan was about to fail since we were all busy with our respective things. But phew, thank God, the plan worked and we all had a great time!

On the day of photoshoot, the weather was kind of not convincing enough for a photo taking session. It was the hazy season, btw (October 2015). We were hoping for a beautiful sun to set that evening, unfortunately it went on drizzling-raining in between the shoot, and we all had to endure it by sheltering ourselves under a huge tree while waiting for the rain to stop. Nevertheless, I did manage to snap some good photos which I hope both of them like love it! :))

Thank you so much for realizing my little dream, you two. It means so much to me, you can't even tell how many times I thank God for this golden golden opportunity.

Thank you for contributing ideas and give me suggestions, enriching my experience and ideas. Thanks to both of you for understanding and tolerating my slow speed in snapping photos, my busy schedule and delay in editing those photos. I had a wonderful time getting to know more about you two, your love story and your individual thoughts!

It was once in a lifetime opportunity, I must say. If there's such a great chance again, I am definitely 100%ly going to say yes to snapping pictures of both of you in the near future. A better and more creative set of pictures, I pinky promise!

(That's if you guys want me to be your photog again, hehe)

Anyways, it was such a great pleasure working and interacting with you two :)

Stay sweet and lovely!

Cheerio.

More photos at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/theybelongtopk/albums/72157664593336616 :)

xx

Safe Haven?

Honestly speaking, I have never felt so accomplished after I finished reading a good book. Especially when you finished reading in less than 12 hours.

Notes : Quoted lines with Verdana (font and bold) are some of my favourite lines that I picked from the novel.

A book worth 4.9 out of 5.0 from me with special mixture of themes definitely deserves a soft spot here, in my blog.
I have always thought that all Sparks's books must be romantically touching with some sadness in between or at the end. Or the usual male character with war/marine background with long distance relationship or such?

But THIS book (to my surprise), it's nothing related to war, sad love story or religion.
It's about family, love, friendship, kindness, courage, violence, (chronic) alcoholism, power, fear, innocence and imagination. (with very little sex scenes throughout - bonus! less distracting, I mean haha) Well...I can't deny, I love this combo!


The plot started off with a general introduction of the (main) female character, moving on to the (not so important) side characters, then the (main) male character and from there, the story starts. Quite naturally. Actually I like how the plot is twisted with suspense as I read on. It didn't bore me at all! 
Truthfully speaking, introductory part is always the slowest part and it gets me a while to get used to the characters and their roles and once I am familiar with it, (BUMM!) the suspense creeps in slowly, in different forms!

"Giving voice to the truth of her past meant opening the door to the future." 



There are 2 different kind of suspense Sparks is trying to put in here. One is romantically suspense, y'know the usual adrenaline rush in every romantic book you read. Two is the kind that will make you criminally ill, in which you'll start to worry whether the devil will kill the good character/the innocence or the otherwise. Yep. 
These two suspense is slotted in well and I must say, that was a good job done, Mr. Sparks! #clapsclaps


"That's what courage is. If she weren't scared, she wouldn't need courage in the first place."



Somewhere along the themes of family, friends and love, there is a "violence", "power" and "courage" in between, and followed by "kindness" and back to "love".




"I truly believe that while love can hurt, love can also heal."



It's not the typical love story that will make you say, "Ah, love stories like this will only exist in books or movies." This, however (I don't know why) the whole story just felt so relatable and real. Although I was a little taken aback by the "imaginary" ending, it is still possible that things like that does happen in real life.


"No buts.", he said. "because there are none. You see yourself as someone who couldn't get away. I see the courageous woman who escaped. You see yourself as someone who should be ashamed or guilty because she stopped it from happening ever again. Not many women have the strength to do what you did.."


And I must admit, I absolutely love the courageous, strong and independent characteristics in the female character. Although she was quite stupid in the past, to be blinded with abusive love (well that is why love is blind), I am glad that she made the decision to leave and fight to love herself more. 
In this book, the main male role is (of course) the man of one in a million. I simply love his sensitive character in the novel. I like how love, believe and simplicity shape him into an understanding and kind human being that I think man like this still exist in this real world but too bad, it's kind of really really rare these days. #ohtheregoesmydescendedhope

but I swear that I'm gonna marry this kind of man, someday....... ..............(hopefully.)


I guess the man's genuine heart and simplicity (in this story) melt my heart every time I read. Not to forget, those heartwarming lines from both characters makes me smile from ear to ear as I flip the pages. <3
On the other hand, the violence part in the story was pretty good. The effect of chronic alcoholism and mentally ill thinking are quite scary sometimes. It was quite well described and it stimulates my sympathetic nervous system every single time there is a negative intention of the devil in this story.


And....... that's about it! Will definitely place this book together with 'Jane's Melody' on my bookshelf so that I will know that these are the books that I won't mind rereading again and again.



"It had my heart racing by just sitting here, reading it. When a book does that, then you know that it's a good book." :)




xx

Keep going, you are not there yet.

Looking at my goddamn results and I want to look at them every day until I graduate.
I want to look at them until they become my daily motivation to work even harder than before. Although you have personally achieved your target, that target dear self is only part of your main goal. Two more donkey years to go, make sure you utilize the time well to excel, at the same time have the best time of your life :)

Keep going, keep pushing yourself, keep doing your best! 
Received congratulatory wishes here and there from dear ones. I am undoubtedly grateful. Thank you so much, my dear support system!

Indeed the thought,

"Aim high, achieve higher!" :)

Happy Thursday, everyone!



P/S : I might look cool by typing the few paragraphs above, but actually..Iamsodyinglyhappyinsidefeelslikerewardingmyselfalldayallnight! Afterall, this deserves some small celebration, isn't it? :) 
PP/S : Okay, keep cool pk. Work harder and you'll deserve better celebration after that :))


xx

That courage ;

Yesterday, I had a street shoot with four friends ; Jimmy, Junrong, Kahpei and Jiashen. Let's just call them Jim, JR, KP, and JS for short.

We met up at Kinokuniya, KLCC and began to discuss the concept of street photography that we were going to do. The concept that we planned this time round is slightly different than normal, which we are combining photography and people's stories into one.
Basically we will approach people to talk and we will be listening to their stories/what they are going to tell us after a photograph is taken or before the photograph is taken. It is similar to 'Human of New York' concept but as we all are trying out for the first time, it is still quite far from the original concept, in terms of the impact and the insight.

But I think Jim and JS did a good job in extracting people's stories tho'. Can't wait to see their products :))

So we started off the 'project' at KLCC park. We divided ourselves into two team, KP and I in one team, whereas JS and Jim in another. JR (the one with better experiences and a master in this), on the other hand joined either team as to see how we were doing, guiding us as we try.

First try : we tried the 'let me help you to snap a photo of you and your friend' trick. It worked! We talked to the tourists for a little while and he told us about his experience in Malaysia, which he enjoyed very much. He also introduced his friend to us and looking forward for the rest of his stay here. So the conversation ended without a picture taken by any of our cameras. Whoops! What a wasted chance D:

(Some random street photographs :) )

Second try : we use the same trick on a couple of people. After fails and many more trials, we finally got some photos of them. Like...

these. :)

"We came from Medan, Indonesia. We were at Klang yesterday and just reached KL today. These are my close relatives and this is my sweet daughter, who is nine years old *hugging her daughter tight*. Y'know, Malaysia is such a beautiful country, we basically love everything here! The food, the places and the people here are very friendly. We are little upset that we are leaving tomorrow, hope to visit Malaysia again, another time soon." :)

After that, we met another group of students from Korea in front of Pavillion Crystal Fountain. KP showed a picture of them taking their selfies, and offered to take a photo of them using her DSLR. In the end, we were invited to join their selfies together as we stood under the light rain.

They told us that they are here for a vacation programme under HELP university and they are really, really excited to be here, in Malaysia! :) One of them said, 'her favourite food is nasi lemak!'
All of us laughed.
As the rain got heavier, we moved into the mall, exchanged thank you(s) in Korean language and bid farewell. I wish I could talk more with them and probably exchanged contacts but sadly, we didn't.

Based on these few hours of trials, fails and trials, it is obviously seen that where do I (personally) need to improve. Everybody has their own respective ways of approaching people, I believe my way is different too. Most importantly, we must know what our objectives are and have a clear mindset of what we are going to do. Master the skills, level up the confidence and boost the courage within ourselves.

"Talking to/socialize with many people in university/hospital/a closed community, does not mean you are a good communicator when it comes to approaching people whom you don't know at public."

Always remember that.
Don't force if people are not willing to tell you, let it comes naturally.

All in all it was a good experience for me, and the rest, I believe. Appreciate all the guidance and advices from JR and KP's presence in joining me to break the shy-and-courage-barrier together. :) Special thanks to Jimmy for the initiative and idea for the street shoot and also my online friend who has now become my friend in real life, JS for saying YES to our random street shoot and participating the fun. Hahaha.
Hope everyone had a memorable day- attempted new things, experienced a different way of approaching, especially to new people and also tried different kind of photography.

Thank you guys (so so much!) for making this happen. You guys have no idea how grateful I am and I am adding this to my personal, upcoming #happinessproject. :) I don't wanna jinx anything so let's hope and wish that the project (will definitely come true but I want to say is) will last long. :)

Am not too sure how soon we will see each other again, just wishing all of you the best of luck in everything you all do -work/studies. :) Oh, do not forget to contribute to the society too no matter where you are.
Cheerio, everybody! :))

xx


[Photos in this posts are by KP and myself, group photo by Jimmy.]

Street Photog #2 ;

Date : 22/3/2014
Place : KL-Bukit Bintang area
Photogs : PK, JR and PN.

Invited the club members to join the second outing of the year, unfortunately most of them can't make it, so three of them went to street photog with our own light boxes! :D

First stop was KL KTM station.

It was so empty! I was late again D: (actually no, the train stopped halfway between Midvalley and KL Sentral station -___- )
Wish I could stayed longer at this station but to be frank, there were not much subjects and so we left. (I'll come back here again, one day).

We walked, walked, walked and reached an underground tunnel, and spotted light on our way reaching stairs.. immediately we (were completely silent) took out our light boxes and started shooting, lol.

Didn't upload any of these to flickr cuz' none of them are nice :/

As you all might already know, I'm a macro/close up photography fan. I always switch on the macro mode on my camera where ever I go. This is bad and battery draining I know. But on this day, I tried to reduce the 'macro' mode and focused more on street photography and people photography. :]

Friends said, "Just go! Shoot! Go nearer!"

Look who I saw!

TARC-METRO-BUS-AUNTY! Hahaha (ok, it's actually metro bus and aunty who always passes by TARC to pick up students :B )

I'm always a fan of old, vintage building like this. :)

I still remember this uncle, very well. :)

Entering Petaling street, slowly!

So we stopped at a stall, to have our morning breakfast. After that we continued our journey to.... KLCC!

Along the journey, we found an uncle, who was ALSO photographing, using his phone (iPhone to be precise) while walking together (not exactly, maybe just coincidentally) with us. Haha
Very tourist-y and cool uncle!

Look at the way both of them walk. 70% similar right? (with the bag, camera/cameraphone on right hand, both looking towards the left direction) LOL

Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached KLCC! :D

At first we wanted to watch a movie, but found out that the ticket was way too expensive, so we decided to have a dessert then walk-photog.

At Tong Pak Fu! #asiansatwork
(Oh please bear with the photo quality -snapped using phone :/ )

After that we walked to Pavillion! (and Bukit Bintang area)

And before the street photography day ended, we had our lunch at 3pm? Hahaha just because we had our desserts at 12pm. Anyways, we must also have our own p.o.t.d.! (Photo of the day)

There, meet my friend Junrong on my right, and Phan Nop on my most right! :D
Had a good time with you guys, thanks for sharing your opinions and stories to me. ;)

I've also learnt some 'valuable' lessons from you guys (indirectly, haha)
Anyway, if there's a chance, during our free time, let's eat-walk-snap (REPEAT) again :D


P/S : Photos (above) were taken using JR's Fujifilm X100 :)