The first day of med2041

I was in shock after the introductory lecture given the amount of work that we have to do for the whole semester and I suppose this was not an ideal way to wake me up completely from my reverie..lol....Student Project Case, Community Placement, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and a whole series of Knowledge Management lectures threatened to suffocate me :(

Ironically, I had a quite gleeful day afterwards. Afterall, I got to see a lot of my ol' tute mates and chit-chatted a bit ^^ and to eat the humongous bacon sandwich for lunch yet again...

On a final note, our lecturer 'fang fei ji' so we could head home earlier. That's why i am writing blog here ^^

All the best to my med2042 mates!

Don't really understand what does the cartoon means but just like the graphic...LOL...

Gold rush!!!!!!!

Jessica, Siaw Tze, Calvin, Ryan and I finally went to Ballarat as planned. It was quite an eventful start for the day as Ryan and I got a bit lost on the way to take the rented Hyundai Sonata. We spent 10 minutes more walking on the entirely opposite direction just to reach a housing estate…LOL…we also could not get a proper Melway but since we had google map, it was alright.

I was just enjoying the rural view when I noticed white specks on the grass.
“Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I exclaimed.

It was so windy and I could barely open my eyes!

We got so excited that we even pulled over at the side of Western Freeway to take pictures of the snow. To add on to the excitement, we also had a small detour to Kryal Castle. It was a mere 3 degrees there but the view was awesome!



Afterwards, we finally reached Sovereign Hill. It is a town specifically designed for tourists. We had fun taking photos and watching various shows. There were horse carriages, bowling, bakery, gold digging site, diggers' residential areas etc...When Ryan got a speck of gold, he was so excited. Too bad we did not get to take a photo...

And there was a Snow Magic show when artificial snow was blown out by machines. We also watched how gold bars are moulded.

It was 'snowing' but you can't really see it in the picture :(
All the staff were dressed in those costumes.

We managed to rush to the Gold Museum too and were dazzled by GOLD!




We even stayed and watched the Blood on the Southern Cross show. I should say the show is worth $32.00 except it was kind of too long and we nearly fell asleep…LOL….the ‘stage’ is the actual-sized replica of Ballarat in the old times, depicting the carnage of gold diggers due to a clash with the government. It was a pity that we were not allowed to take photos, so those who are interested will have to experience for yourselves :p

If you are interested, have a look at this website: Sovereign Hill, Ballarat

The last stop was Eureka Center. We expected it to be closed (this is Australia anyway), but to our utter disbelief, Calvin blurted,"It's opened 24 hours!" just to find out in time that it actually said," 24 HOURS touch screen...."

The famous Southern Cross flag.

I was struggling to stay awake on the way back by chatting with Ryan. And HE was the driver, not me! Thanks Ryan for driving us around :)

However, all the fun will soon end with yet another semester with information overload...

谈海

我一直以来都很喜欢海的味道。。。

是咸的，是很有汗水与泪水的咸。海本来就很有人情味。。。海孕育了无数的生物，它毕竟是大海妈妈呀！每当海风吹拂在脸上是，心里就豁达起来。所以，无论心情又多么糟，只要到海滩，就能把烦恼抛到九霄云外去了。就算是静静地坐在海滩，心情都会开朗化。静静的拾着贝壳，让我每当想念海时，都有最好的纪念品。。。

我很喜欢戏水。。。无论是泳池，或是水上乐园，我都会兴奋得像个三岁小孩一样。很沉醉于被水轻拍脸颊的感觉，浪花更令我心花怒放！

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经过外婆的逝世后，看到海时就更有感触了。海不再只是一个散心之地，它演变成了我倾诉心情的地方。那天，专门到海滩，希望能看到外婆潇洒的背影。心里觉得他应该感到很豁达吧！

将来看到海时，一定会特别开心！

海在我生命里又多了一层意义。。。

Margarine vs butter

These articles may well answer some concerns about margarine and butter posted by Ryan's Blog.

For your information, I did a serious search on Medline ^^

Guess which is the winner? Butter or margarine?

1)Kluger J.

Margarine misgivings. [Comparative Study. News] Time. 154(1):63, 1999 Jul 5.

A once wholesome food sets off new health alarms

Not long ago, ordering margarine with your toast seemed like a downright virtuous thing to do. Without all the saturated fats that plump up butter, margarine was said to be the perfect way to get flavor without endangering your heart. In recent years, however, evidence has mounted that this supposedly healthier spread poses cardiac risks of its own. And last week a study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that those risks are so great that it may be time to consider modifying food labels so consumers can tell which butter substitutes are good for them and which are not so good.

The problem with margarine comes from substances known as trans-fatty acids. At room temperature, the vegetable oil used to make margarine and shortenings stays in a liquid state, not the most spreadable consistency. When the oil is treated with heat and chemicals, the fatty-acid molecules straighten out, allowing the liquid to solidify. But this trans-fatty configuration also converts beneficial polyunsaturates into less healthy fatty acids, and this can cause blood fats to rise.

Just how high they rise was made clearer than ever last week. In a study conducted at Boston's Tufts University, researchers fed subjects randomly selected diets that included soybean oil, semiliquid margarine, soft margarine, shortening and stick margarine, and then compared their blood fats to levels measured in high-butter diets. The more trans-fatty acids in a spread, scientists found, the more fats in the blood. Although all the butter substitutes reduced the level of LDL (the "bad" cholesterol), the trans-fatty acids sometimes drove down the concentration of HDL ("good" cholesterol), changing the critical ratio of total blood cholesterol to HDL. In the case of stick margarine, this ratio actually climbed above the butter baseline. Says Tufts professor of nutrition Alice Lichtenstein, who headed the study: "It's the stick margarine, with its high trans-fatty-acid content, that is the worst offender."

Any other food that failed so conspicuously to live up to its good-for-you hype would be required to admit that fact, and the Journal argued that margarine should be treated no differently. In an editorial accompanying the study, researchers insisted that not only should margarine products be required to disclose their trans-fatty-acid content but so too should fried fast foods like French fries, which account for up to 75% of the trans-fatty acids consumed--often unknowingly--in the U.S. each year.

None of this argues for a return to an all-butter diet. Margarines may not lower LDL levels much, but lower them they do. What's more, food scientists in Europe have developed margarines free of trans-fatty acids, and these are slowly making their way to grocery shelves in the U.S. Until they're in wide use here, it's up to manufacturers to give consumers the food labels they need--and it's up to consumers to read them.
BETTER THAN BUTTER

Chart shows changes in "bad" cholesterol, compared with butter

Soybean oil -12%
Semiliquid margarine -11%
Soft margarine -9%
Shortening -7%
Stick margarine -5%

MAYBE NOT

The more solid the butter substitutes, the more trans-fatty acids they contain--and the more they put the heart at risk Source: The New England Journal of Medicine


2)Nestel P. Cehun M. Pomeroy S. Abbey M. Weldon G.

Cholesterol-lowering effects of plant sterol esters and non-esterified stanols in margarine, butter and low-fat foods. [Clinical Trial. Journal Article. Randomized Controlled Trial. Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't] European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 55(12):1084-90, 2001 Dec.

Conclusion:
1. Plant sterol esters and non-esterified stanols, two-thirds of which were incorporated into low-fat foods, contributed effectively to LDL cholesterol lowering, extending the range of potential foods.

2. The LDL cholesterol-raising effect of butter fat could be countered by including sterol esters.
3. Plasma carotenoids and tocopherols were not reduced in this study.

Sponsorship: Meadow Lea Foods, Australia (the greatest confounder of the study, unfortunately)

3)Chisholm A. Mann J. Sutherland W. Duncan A. Skeaff M. Frampton C.

Effect on lipoprotein profile of replacing butter with margarine in a low fat diet: randomised crossover study with hypercholesterolaemic subjects.[erratum appears in BMJ 1996 May 11;312(7040):1203]. [Clinical Trial. Journal Article. Randomized Controlled Trial. Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't] BMJ. 312(7036):931-4, 1996 Apr 13.

Objective: -To examine the effect on lipid and lipoprotein concentrations when butter or an unsaturated margarine is used for cooking or spreading in a reduced fat diet.

Design: -Randomised crossover study with two intervention periods of six weeks' duration separated by a five week washout.

Setting: -Community setting in New Zealand.

Subjects: -49 volunteers with polygenic hypercholesterolaemia and baseline total cholesterol concentration in the range 5.5-7.9 mmol/l.

Main outcome measures: -Concentrations of total and low density lipoprotein, Lp(a) lipoprotein, high density lipoprotein, apolipoprotein B 100, and apolipoprotein A I.

Results: -Concentrations of low density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B were about 10 percent lower with margarine than with butter. Lp(a) lipoprotein and high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations were similar with the two diets.

Conclusion: -Despite concerns about adverse effects on lipoproteins of trans fatty acids in margarines, the use of unsaturated margarine rather than butter by hypercholesterolaemic people is associated with a lipoprotein profile that would be expected to reduce cardiovascular risk.

Hmm..a bit outdated...but should be reliable ^^

My own conclusion: Don't worry too much...just continue enjoying margarine!

Walking from the past into the present...

This is the first day trip organized by MRS which is so near to Clayton. So, the journey was unsurprisingly short.

Our first stop was Old Melbourne Gaol. As Charmaine said, it is pronounced as ‘jail’, not ‘ga-ol’…lol…

I think we spent more time taking photos out on the lawn and the graffiti wall than actually reading the stuff in the gaol because the artificial lawn was so spectacular!



RMIT actually uses part of the old gaol as university buildings. After much detour, we finally got into the jail and got to learn about the famous villains in Melbourne’s history. Among the notorious one are Ned Kelly and Harry Power—proud bushrangers and robbers.

In the gaol...



This was taken just outside of the old city court!

Since it was a self-guided tour, it was really an accidental discovery for us to get into the Police Watch House afterwards. Little did we know that we were going to be arrested as criminals and locked in the jail in dark without bail for a night. The Sergeant in charge acted so compellingly real that everyone, in my opinion, felt a bit intimidated with the use of coarse language and humour. Nevertheless, it was an unusual experience. For your information, I was Saomi who resisted arrest during a demonstration for that half an hour tour. And we even got to take a mug shot!

After a relaxing lunch at our much beloved Hungry Jacks, we proceeded to Eureka Skydeck. On the way up in the lift, I felt as if I was in KL tower’s lift all over again. If it was not because of the discounted entrance fee, we would not have opted to go there in the first place but we certainly did not regret. The view was awesome!

Ryan and I with Melbourne city in the background...

There were also some telescope + kaleidoscope which focused on certain landmarks in Melbourne CBD. I would love to stay for the night view but we decided to leave anyway to shop a bit at Melbourne Central. Coincidentally, Ryan, Jessica and me each bought a long sleeve shirt in Giordano.

When we rushed back to the halls, we were just in time to join Naveen for his farewell BBQ. Of course, there was more than enough booze and ciggie to go around but I only drank a cup of cocktail. Little did I know the liquor was quite strong and I did become funny afterwards.Now I know my limit. But that was another story altogether. We did have good food such as pork, beef and chicken with pita bread. Naveen told ud he actually bought 18kg of meat and invited all Deakinians left in the hall.

And yesterday night, we had Sally, Chau Wang and Yu Wan over for dinner. Everyone enjoyed Malaysian curry with roti canai and Sally's pumpkin pie and of course, her ghost stories :( !

A trip back to the nature II: Pictures say it all

All of us at Puffing Billy...
From left(Front row): Calvin, Siaw Tze, Ling Sing, Stef, Chean Ying, Jessica, Li Ping
(Back row): Ryan, Zhi Han, Nooi Hoay and me!

Doesn't this look as if we were in Japan???

In the 'Forbidden Forest' near Hodgwarts...

The emo me at various train stations of Puffing Billy

Oops...wrong direction from the other photos...lol...

Jess took this just before she went after the arriving train and caught Ryan with the train!

Exactly the same pose as the last one..lol...

Hmm...What Sheryl's mom said is so true...

Poll: Malaysian taxis among worst in world
Readers of The Expat magazine, which has a monthly circulation of 6,000 copies, gave the Malaysian taxi service a big thumbs down when compared with services in 22 other countries.

In fact, local taxis scored the lowest in almost every category polled. The survey's 200-odd respondents, comprising expatriates from 30 countries, even went so far as to brand local cabbies "a national disgrace", "a source of national shame" and "a serious threat to tourists - rude bullies and extortionists".

The most frequent complaint was of overcharging and taxi drivers refusing to take passengers who did not agree to pay a flat rate much higher than the regular fare.

The survey covered five main aspects, namely taxi quality, courtesy of drivers, availability on the street, availability by phone and driver job knowledge.

On a 10-point scale, local taxis got scores of 3.8, 4.4, 4.4, 4.8 and 5.5 for each respective aspect. This was in sharp contrast to the 8.6, 8.0, 8.1, 8.8 and 8.7 earned by taxi drivers in Singapore.

Expat Group CEO Andy Davison, whose company owns The Expat, said the high response rate combined with the absence of any really positive feedback, makes it clear people are unhappy with the current services on offer.

"In the last 10 years, we have done about 40 surveys among the resident expatriate community on many aspects of life in Malaysia.

"Most have produced very positive results, but our first survey on the taxi service has revealed a very negative picture," he said yesterday.

On suggestions on how to improve the image of local taxi drivers, Davison said that fares should be high enough that drivers would not feel the need to overcharge in order to make a living.

He also said driver training was an area that could be improved on.

When asked to comment, Taxi Operators Association chairman Datuk Aslah Abdullah said he couldn't deny the findings of the survey.

"However, you also need to check what the fares are in the other countries being compared, because that's where the problem here lies."

On training, he said drivers had undergone tutorials conducted by City Hall and taxi associations since the beginning of this year.

Folks, there you have it. Let's hear from you, the users of taxis, on the findings of the survey. Talk Back!