It’s time to explain the whole razor and cream story behind Albie’s comment, everytime when randomness is involved. Haha. It all started on a faithful evening at the International Airport of Kuala Lumpur when I have just arrived and met Angeles for the very first time. Turned out that the Al-Funny Albie was on his way to the airport to bring a troop to welcome my arrival as well, to fly to magical Rome before going back to his home in San Giovanni.

We met up at the airport and had coffee and a random conversation about Albie’s ‘growth’. Not an extra ‘limb’, but skin on his hand (I think) and he was recommending Angeles this cream he used that helped remove it. Angeles was confused, because she has no skin growth, in which Albie replied, “Just in case you want to get rid of your nipple” or something along those lines. In which I made a really random and stupid comment of using razor instead.

The end.

***

Before: 62 kg

After: 56 kg

Causes:
- worship of the Gods of Slacks a bit too much leading to laziness to cook proper meals
- a lot more work out, and by ‘work out’, I’m referring to the 200m hike up the hill from the medical centre to School of Biological Sciences in less than 10 minutes. That’s a record OK!
- a lot more walking these days due to lack of exercise when being home
- the once-in-3000-years heatwave probably burned some of the fat (or lack of)

Clinical Treatment:
- increase of beef intake over the past 2 weeks
- more take away than cooking
- increase in Domino’s Meat Lover pizza intake, coupled with Coke (HEAVEN!) - Only $4.95!

***

Almost killed myself yesterday due to Body Systems essays!

It takes about a few miliseconds to take one step forward while walking. To describe taking one step while walking, physiologically and anatomically, it takes 3 full pages of writing.

And that is in dot points.

Please, kill me.

***

I probably say the stupidest things sometimes. The filter between my brain and mouth doesn’t work particularly well under stress.

After a grueling session in the medical library yesterday, I went to visit Inge, the super nice and gentle supervisor I used to volunteer with. She had stroke, and I was there to cheer her up - although she was quite happy already. I told her I wanted to exchange position with her, and she told me, she wants to knock me hard in the head if she had the might.

She’ll get well soon. She’s too kind, positive and nice to die so early.

***

Ren’s baby is due tomorrow! It’s her first child, and I’ll drop in the Women’s and Children’s Hospital to visit her tomorrow. :D

Here’s a modified version of beef casserole for the lazy busy ones. It’s the perfect food for winter!

I had to modify it because I couldn’t be bothered with all the details to make it 5 star.

Beef
Ketchup  (or spaghetti sauce like Raguletto)
Potatoes (cut into small cubes so it cooks faster)
Onions

Optional:
Carrots
Mushrooms (can you tell that I add mushroom to everything?)
Broccoli or Cauliflower
Mustard Powder (because I’m English)

Heat a tall pot - you can use a pan but the oil fountain when you put in the beef isn’t very friendly - and add olive oil. Put in beef and let it fry - leave it to fry, so it has a crusty layer.

Add in onion and fry until soft.

Add some ketchup or in my case, I used spaghetti sauce.

Stir for a bit and then add in water and potatoes. The water should be just enough to cover the potatoes - not too much.

At this point, you can also put in carrot.

Leave it to boil and then turn down the heat and leave it for like 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once the potatoes has become mashed and the gravy is thick, you can add in the broccoli and mushrooms and some mustard powder if you like.

Salt and soy sauce to taste and you’re done! :)

Have it by itself - one whole bowl can keep me full for like 4 hours. It has all you need - carb, protein, fat and vege. Now, don’t you love winter?

Nothing in the morning is more exciting than walking to the mailbox to find personal letters for you - be it from someone off eBay, some random postcard or card, or someone from the Inspire office; so as long as it’s not bills.

I used to receive quite a lot of mails or packages but nowadays, no one loves me anymore and doesn’t send me stuff as often. My mailbox feels so unloved, and it gets suffocated with all these junk mails about what and where is on sale.

Back to my letterbox, nothing beats opening the mailbox to find a cheque for you!

All it takes was to have a look at a banner prepared by Family Planning Australia about oral sex and provide some feedback for it, which probably took only about less than 5 minutes. 50 bucks for 5 minutes, not bad ey?

Enough for me to throw a party on the 4th July!

Smartypants is my newly acquired nick thanks to Mr Humouroid.

Anyway, it’s exam times with my first paper next Friday. It is almost like a blogosphere’s ritual to post their examination timetable on their blog, but I wouldn’t put mine just to make stalking me a little bit tougher, in case there’s any.

Friday marked the last day of our semester, but I wasn’t overly excited about it, and I am not too sure whether that is a good sign or not. Sure, I love uni and all, but I don’t think I am prepared to graduate and enter the cruel world of working. Think: evil boss, cannibalistic colleagues and a mundane 9-5/Monday-Friday work. Well, at least that’s what the stereotypical perception of work the blogosphere speak about.

I want a job that’s enjoyable, but at the same time, I don’t want to work. I am only one semester to graduation, i.e. if I pass!

Anyway, Friday was also the poster exhibition for the first year students. Me, being a good tutor, was there to encourage the students and stimulate their mind by asking them questions and pretending like I was judging. First look I knew who will win the AUD300 prize for the best poster, cos the winner sure do deserve it and it is evident the amount of research they have put into producing the poster.

I’ve told everyone that they have to either choose a difficult topic, or come out with a really unique and almost-impossible hypothesis if they choose an easy one.

José and Ben with their poster.

Oh wells, the most important bit is I had fun with the ‘kids’ (read: students) and my other colleagues despite being tackled and thrown up in the air several times.

Remember the prayer the student wrote of a lecturer? He’s the guy holding the cheque on the left. And on the right, that’s the first year topic co-ordinator, Karen, a.k.a. my boss.

The consequences of being a typical sized asian a.k.a. small is people are more likely to pick on you (not in a mean way of course) by carrying you, like a baby, high up in the air or on their shoulder. I need to either grow taller or bigger.

Of course, per usual, there was BBQ (note to the Malaysian: THIS is what Aussie BBQ truly means - not those conmen who use “Aussie BBQ” to attract customers at the pasar malam / night market in Malaysia).

The good thing about being a third year is you get to bully the second years to do the cooking while you do the eating.

This is Luc, who was my student when he was in first year, and now he’s my colleague! Also, my partner in crime!

The line to the BBQ. Is it just me or are the students getting taller by generations?

Andrew, one of my “occassional” students, mainly because he attended the wrong class once, and I replaced his tutor for a week, so he was my student twice.

Well, that marked the end of the first semester of my final year. One down, one more to go. GRADUATION! Oh nooooo!

Inspired by Raymond’s post, I thought I’d talk a little bit about myself as well.

Photo Credit: Alvin Leong, although it is edited by me in a limited amount of time.

I’m Ehon from a tiny little city on the island of Borneo called Kuching, under the ruling of Malaysia. I’m currently in Adelaide completing my studies in Bachelor of Medical Science double majoring in Neuroscience and Physiology, as well as Pharmacology and Toxicology. Neuroscience is a bitch but I love it because it’s a rather mysterious side of our body system.

I love a little bit of everything, especially if it involves a lot of emotions, whether it’s happiness or sadness; or fear.

I’ve done a three month course in digital photography under the guidance of the super talented Alvin Leong, and during that three months, I have had the chance to capture three rather grand weddings, and learned a couple of studio and outdoor shoots too. From that, I have learned a bit about photography, and photo editing - although I’m still perfecting that.

I’ve also been involved in the production of a feature film that was shown in major cinemas all around Malaysia, and a commercial shooting for Sarawak Convention Bureau, so I’ve learned a little bit about the production side of things in movie production.

I volunteer for Reach Out! (www.reachout.com.au) as their youth ambassador, which is under the Inspire Foundation (www.inspire.org.au) based in Sydney. My capacity as a youth ambassador basically is to represent the organisation from doing presentations to conducting interviews. I also organise marketing side of things, and go on air and all those kind of jazz. Through that, I have also met some inspiring people like Helen Maczkowiack the author of ‘An Awkward Fit’, Olivia Stratton Miss Australia 2003, Ben Darwin world rugby league champion, Cathy Freeman, a highly respected international athlete in Australia and so on.

I also moderate the forum, providing support and resources for young people suffering from mental health issues like depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal, eating disorders, to name a few. We do what we can, link them with help, and basically support them through their recovery journey, or we help them to get the right help. Through that, I have heard some of the most life changing stories and have the honour to work with some of the most inspiring people. People who have battled severe depression, survived suicide or sexual assault, recovered from eating disorder and so on.

This blog chronicles my life as a medical science student, an ambassador for an amazing organisation, and just my everyday life. I travel every once in a while, so I write about interesting stuff I experience with all my 5 senses (some say six). And I must say, through this blog, I have met some truly amazing people, some of which are just pure gem!

According to good ole’ dictionary.com:
hodgepodge /?h?d??p?d?/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation
[hoj-poj] –noun
a heterogeneous mixture; jumble.

So expect some really random stuff from me. :)