The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Revisited this animation from my childhood today. Sad how many people overlook this movie, thinking it's a childish, girly 'little pony' movie. It so isn't! If anything, this is one of my favourite movies of all time. The vivid and sometimes frightening characters still continue to haunt me. This is a 1982 animated film adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's fantasy novel. It's be known to be a very accurate portrayal of the book. The book itself was published 40 years ago and is still his most popular and well-loved novel.


Taken from http://utd500.utdallas.edu/~hairston/lastunicorn.html, cos I'm too lazy to write my own synopsis right now:

The story follows the Unicorn (she is never given a proper name) who leaves her enchanted forest where she has lived forever, only to find there are no other unicorns left in the world. She goes on a quest to find what has happened to them and is joined by an incompetent wizard, Schmendrick the magician, and a middle-aged scullery maid, Molly Grue. Together they travel to the castle of King Haggard having heard that he and his magical creature, the Red Bull, have imprisoned all the other unicorns. Before they arrive, the Red Bull appears and begins to chase the Unicorn. Schmendrick saves her by turning her into a human woman, thwarting the Bull which can only see unicorns. The Unicorn is revolted at having been transformed into a mortal shape, but Schmendrick explains it is the only way they can gain entrance to the castle. He gives her the name Lady Amalthea and the three of them reach the castle. King Haggard recognizes her for what she truly is, but allows them to stay as his new "playthings". The king's adopted son, Prince Lir, falls in love with Amalthea and devotes himself entirely to trying to win her love. The rest of the novel follows Schmendrick and Molly's effort to find the lost unicorns before Amalthea loses her memory of being a unicorn and becomes completely a mortal human being.

Because it is about a unicorn and a quest for magic, most people mistakenly dismiss it as nothing but a children's story (it's amazing how much of the best and deepest of the world's literature gets classified as children's stories, folk tales, and myths so they can be safely ignored).In reality it is a story that can be read on many levels, simply as an adventure story or more deeply as a fantastic exploration of the nature of truth, beauty, reality, immortality, and the purpose of life. Peter S. Beagle himself has written that the book is sort of "a personal I Ching, which gives me no advice, no handy warnings, but slowly tells me things I had forgotten, or hidden from myself."


I remember first watching this when I was around primary 2 or 3 in Leigh Lyn's house (my then neighbour and best friend in USJ 2). Then again on TV3 in which I videotaped. Being still little and all, I found the red bull, and the scene where the harpy devours Mommy Fortuna (oops! spoiler!) particularly frightening. Even now I still watch those scenes with a slight twinge. I love the beautiful, old-school Japanese style animation. Coupled with fantastic screenplay, voice actors (Mia Farrow and Christopher Lee among them) and hauntingly beautiful music, it really set the tone for the story.

Watching The Last Unicorn made me feel strangely melancholic. I Don't know why. It reminded me that the world is cruel and impermanent, yet in it love grows. This is a story of an immortal being, immersed in the world yet detached from it. In a twist of fate, she becomes a fragile mortal who learns to love and regret.

To love is to let go, to sacrifice, and to cherish the memory.

Eternal Snow
~Full Moon wo Sagashite~


君を好きになって　どれくらい経つのかナ？
気持ち　膨らんでゆくばかりで
君は　この思い気付いているのかナ？
一度も言葉には　してないけど

雪のように　ただ静かに
降り積もり　つづけてゆく

Hold me tight　こんな思いなら
誰かを好きになる気持ち
知りたく　なかったよ
I love you　涙止まらない
こんなんじゃ　君のこと
知らずにいれば　良かったよ

君をいつまで　思っているのかナ？
ため息が窓ガラス　曇らせた

揺れる心　灯すキャンドルで
今　溶かして　ゆけないかナ？

Hold me tight　折れるほど強く
木枯らし　吹雪に出会っても
寒くないようにと
I miss you　君を思うたび
編みかけの　このマフラー
今夜も一人　抱きしめるよ

永遠に降る雪があるなら
君へと続くこの思い　隠せるのかナ？

Hold me tight　こんな思いなら
誰かを好きになる気持ち
知りたく　なかったよ
I love you　胸に込み上げる
冬空に叫びたい
今すぐ君に　会いたいよ

Only in China...

Yet another good weekend has gone by... Was supposed to post photos from last weekend's trip to Maitland. Guess that'll have to wait. Attended the annual IMU BBQ yesterday night. It was good to see the 4th, 5th, 6th years and our super seniors (interns and RMOs) gathered together for some good fun. More pictures on that soon too. In the meantime, hope you'll like this one: I took it off a group in Facebook called "The Most Bizzare Things I've Ever Seen in Hospital." :P

Downfall of a child prodigy

I'm sure some of you remember this girl from many years back. She is the child prodigy Sufiah Yusof who at the age of 13, was accept into Oxford University to study mathematics. Everyone thought this bright, young mind had but a beautiful future ahead. She made us Malaysians proud. Sadly, the public never knew of the torture she endured to reach such heights. It's too much for any young person to bear. This is a perfect example of parents who push their kids too far. She's now 23, and you'd expect her to be sailing smoothly through a shinning career, the world at her feet. Instead this child prodigy is selling her body for £130 an hour.

Gotta admit, she's pretty darned hot. She claims that some clients go wild when she recites math equations during sex. Interesting application of knowledge.

"I don't have any regrets. I've never felt more confident about my body and I've had some of the best sex of my life."
-Sufiah Yusof-

I wonder if she'll still feel the same way when she looks back at her life 50 years from now. Now I certainly don't approve prostitution or any other vices, but I find it shallow/pathetic/?strange that a few people are attributing her downfall to black magic and straying from her religion. There are groups out there (bless their souls) who are trying to contact her and provide 'religious rehabilitation' so she'll return to the 'right path'. I mean honestly, the crux of the problem lies with the years of emotional abuse she's endured from her father, not because she 'strayed from her religion'. If anything, shouldn't this issue be tackled from a psychological perspective? Not resorting to bomoh rituals and whatnot. I think some people are focusing too much on the vice itself, and not the reasoning behind it. But who am I to know any better. I'm just a stupid little medical student...

The following are links to some articles about Sufiah. Do read about her sad story. I hope that whatever she does, she'll be happy and finally be at peace with herself and her family.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/0604_hooker.shtml
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/3003_hooker.shtml
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/31/nation/20798773&sec=nation
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/7/nation/20870201&sec=nation

Memorable quotes from O&G at the Lyell McEwin...

Received this photo some time ago but didn't realise it. It's a picture of the my rotation group and Prof. Dekker at his house the night before the viva. He invited us over for pizza and to discuss any last minute questions, before he and the other consultants grill us the morning after. Yeah... I guess I'm happy the rotation went well and turned out to be enjoyable at times. Easy for me to say though as it's over already. I certainly don't want to go through it again. Hope I pass the exam... Results will be out sometime next week.

For ppl who back home in Malaysia/my old buddies:
(L-R: Aishah, Melanie, Thanh-Thao, Elizabeth, Prof. Dekker, Laura, Brenton, Rosie, Daniel, me) Jeremy is missing from the picture 'cos he couldn't make it that night...

Let me think of a few 'memorable quotes' I heard over the course of my 9 weeks there. Not much actually, but I'm dead tired now and bored as hell:

"Young women are amazing. Some will lose 6 litres of blood and still not die. It's like you just can't kill them!" - Dr. Alphonse Roex during a lecture on antepartum & postpartum haemorrhage -

"...this goes to show that it takes multiple errors to kill a woman..." - Prof. Dekker on mismanagement of pregnant patients.

"The fetus is greedy. It will cause all these changes in the maternal circulation, to squeeze everything possible out of the woman. Just like us men." - Prof. Dekker -

"You need to be very brave to be a woman." -Prof. Dekker -

and finally:

"Be careful of stepping on people's foot. It may be connected to the ass you need to kiss tomorrow." - Jeremy Seow-

I wonder if there really is such a thing as an empathic sociopath...

"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit

and it's filled with people who are filled with shit!

And the vermin of the world inhabit it!"

~Sweeney Todd~

Watched the latest adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street yesterday night. Yep, I'm a bit outdated. Being stuck here in Adelaide does that to me. A very impressive performance considering most of the cast are not professional singers. As always, Johnny Depp never ceases to amaze me. He is in every part the malevolent, tortured, vengeful barber who seeks retribution in a world where man devours man. No matter what role he plays, Johnny still exudes that unique charm. Omigosh he's soo hot... And having him play a singing sociopath just makes him hotter! *swoons* The ending was so ironic and sad, yet kinda fitting. Sad to see that in this cruel world, even the kind and virtuous are robbed of happiness, beauty and love. Break them enough, even ordinary people can be driven insane with grief and vengeance. This is my kind of movie. A macabre combination of horror, romance and musical. Artfully woven together to form a brutal, heart-wrenching climax. Yet another Tim Burton masterpiece!

Kyaaa!!! I got tagged!

Haha.... this is half a month overdue.. Sorry Christine! Hehe.. still tired from a day well spent. Went hiking at Morialta Park with Jenna, Chen and Ken today and visited Glenelg on Saturday (photos in my next post). Felt I deserved some fun after completing O&G (yes folks, it's over!). Actually, despite all my ranting bout how hectic and time-consuming it is to be posted in Lyell McEwin, it turned out to be quite enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Teaching there was really good after the first 3 weeks, thanks to the fantastic O&G team and Prof. So yeah, no regrets and thank God it's my first rotation and not last one at the end of the year. Viva and long case went surprisingly well, whereas I think I kinda killed myself off in a few of the OSCE stations... *Crosses fingers* Hopefully that'll be still enough to pass...


Okie now on to the tag:

The Rules

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of this post and list their names.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.



Random Fact 1:
I have lots and lots of moles. And most of my moles come in pairs.

Random Fact 2:
I love drinking soup, especially those clear, oil-free chinese soups my mom makes and miso soup. Been addicted to instant miso soup lately, though they aren't very authentic and do contain MSG.

Random Fact 3:
I'm still quite manja to my mom.

Random Fact 4:
When I was 7, I broke my 2 front teeth by slipping on wet floor at home and landing on my face. That resulted in a small puddle of blood and trip to the dentist. Didn't smile with my mouth open for a long time after that.

Random Fact 5:
Seems like my front teeth are prone to all sorts of accidents. When I got knocked down by a car in 2004, one of my front teeth got chipped. Xian-Nian is still pestering me to fix it.

Random Fact 6:
Oh ya, did I mention I was knocked down by a car? I was unconscious after that and still can't remember what happened clearly. Thank goodness I wasn't seriously hurt as the car was travelling at quite a high speed. And this was right outside IMU on the day my Semester 1 results were released.

Random Fact 7:
The friends I made in high school have a profound impact in my life. They are the ones who stood by my side through thick and thin. They were the first people who rushed to the hospital on the day of the accident (refer Random Fact 5). They are like family. I do believe that there are some people you are destined to meet in life, and thank God I met them. =)

Random Fact 8:
If I were to name any of my vices, it would be shopping. I think it's embedded in a girl's genetic code! Like some of modern adaptation of the hunter-gatherer instinct. And since coming to Adelaide, I've developed a fondness for dresses. As Xian-Nian says, I seriously have too many dresses now...


Tag 8 people? Erm.... anyone who wants to do this is more than welcome to. But for the heck of it I'll name 8 people...
1. Kakh!
2. Christine Ho
3. Calvin Wong
4. Jane Lim
5. Cindy Soon
6. Poh Lynn
7. Iona
8. Sze Yuen! =)


Goodnight everyone! Dead tired and tomorrow I'll be starting Paediatrics at the Womens and Childrens' Hospital.

Northern Lights

Happily enjoying the long weekend. Sort of. Maybe I'm enjoying it too much.

Went to see the Northern Lights on Friday night. No, it's not those glowy things in the North Pole. :P It's a light display with a twist. They basically project lights onto some buildings along North Terrace according to their shape and architecture. The result? Stunning works of art! For the first time in my life, I saw people sitting on the grass just staring at buildings. The lights change every few minutes, and each pattern is unique.

Had steamboat on Saturday night with the Villagers + IMU 4th years (whom are also Villagers). It was simple but really really fun. Matthew (Shiau Cern's boyfriend) brought his Wii, so that contributed to the fun too. :) Then yesterday night we attended Kian's birthday dinner at The Earl of Leicester Hotel. OMG it was The Attack of the Giant Schnitzels! Jebbrine and I shared a small schnitzel and even that wasn't small. As usual, Ken and his bottomless black hole of a stomach managed to sapu his large shnitzel. Watching Rahul, Kian and the rest of the guys was so painful... why do guys need to show that they're 'man enough' by shoving giant schnitzels down their gullets? But it was good fun anyway. After dinner the ABCs (Australian Born Chinese, though not all of them are Chinese) brought Kian to a skate park by the airport to cut his cake. As for his present, everyone chipped in to get him flying lessons! How cool is that?

Last night I've discovered a couple of new places in Adelaide, at least not so katak di bawah tempurung already. :P

Okie here are some pictures of the Northern Lights. Don't have pictures from the other events. Viva and OSCE is in 2 weeks and the stress in mounting. Oh please oh please let me pass O&G so that I won't need to repeat it next year....

Who wants to be a billionaire?

Elections 2008...

Thanks Pak Seong for forwarding this to me. Selamat Berundi!

The dream was so beautiful, I don't wanna to wake up.

I looked out the bus window. The airport slowly disappeared from view. Clouds overhead seemed to reflect my emotions. It was mostly grey and heavy with impending rain, but there were patches of blue shinning through. It hurts to say goodbye to you again and again, but instead I should be happy that you came.

These 5 weeks have made your absence now so foreign. My room feels too spacious, yet smaller at the same time. Emptier. When I glance upon that vacant spot, there's a rise of suffocating tears.

Opened my balcony door to let the noise of the Clipsal in. Cars zooming. Live bands. Crowds cheering. Fireworks to end the night. And then the return of heart-wrenching silence.

The most precious moments can never be captured on camera. It's your presence, your happiness and most importantly, the unwavering faith that everything will be alright.

I'll heed your advice. I'll continue on with my journey here, and achive my goals in life with no regret. I'll take good care of myself and I know you'll do the same. You said 9 months will pass quickly. I cannot help but believe, you've never given me reason to doubt your promises.

Nice, long rant about my current rotation (have to get this off my chest!)

Yet another long-delayed post. Sorry peeps, been sucked into a hell-hole in terms of work the past few weeks. Am currently on week 4 of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. Of all the hospitals, I got Lyell McEwin (surprise, surprise). Yes dear readers, those of you with bionic memory will recall me mentioning last year that it's roughly 54 bus stops away from the city. It isn't just the distance I'm pissed about though.

The timetable and student expectations are a little ridiculous. Let me explain why:

1. Most days it'll be from 8.00a.m. till 5.00p.m. Each student will take turn attending multiple sessions of clinics (WTF why are there so many: Antenatal, Gynae, Triage, Colposcopy, Complications of Pregnancy, Ultrasound, Midwives clinic). Each clinic session takes up half a day. Sometimes you'll be assigned to midwives clinics which go from 5.00p.m. to 8.00p.m. You also have sessions in the Operating theatre. Oh and don't forget PBL sessions and tutorials on O&G and Neonatology.

2. If doing antenatal & Gynaecology clinics in Lyell Mc isn't enough, you're supposed go to a hospital in Gawler (which is even further than Lyell Mc) for MORE clinics. Then when you're done, you're to come back to Lyell Mc for MORE MORE clinics/PBL/tutorials/Theatre/24-hour call.

3. We have virtually no time on our timetable to do actual ward work. I think none of us have been able to clerk and examine patients in the women's ward so far. And the head of unit expects us to present the patients during the ward round every week. Seriously how on earth are we supposed to do that? We hardly have time to sleep.

4.There are also various teaching sessions outside Lyell McEwin Hospital, such as STD clinics in the city, vaginal examination tutorials in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, family planning sessions in God-knows-where, etc etc etc. And for people who don't have a car like yours truly, it's like they expect me to pull a miraculous teleportation act or something. We're in Adelaide, not Star Trek! How on earth do you expect me to be in Lyell Mc for 24 hours call, and then magically appear in Hindmarsh within the next hour? And then after Hindmarsh, you expect me to teleport myself back to Lyell Mc for a tutorial. That's so impossible if you take the bus! It takes me 1.5 hours to get to Lyell Mc by bus from my house. That's provided that the buses come on time and I don't spend 45 minutes standing like an idiot at the bus stop.

5. We have to do 5 lots of 24-hour shifts in the labour ward. There's a signature sheet midwives have to sign off for every birth you witness/assist. You have to do a minimum of 5 births. Technically you're supposed to be in the labour ward from 8.00a.m. to 8.00a.m. the next day. You'd be lucky if you get more than 4 hours of sleep. My last shift was busy. Only got 1.5 hours. You'll also be lucky if they actually give you a place to sleep. Sometimes you have to shove yourself into a saggy little couch. I don't mind doing 24-hour shifts, seriously. What gets to me is that on most days they don't give you the next day off. Or at least half the day off. No, right after your 24-hour shifts, you are expected in clinic/theatre/ultrasound/Hindmarsh/wherever. And to top it off, there may be a PBL right at the end of the day. How do you expect students to actually learn anything if they've been awake for 36 hours straight??? Good thing most midwives and doctors (except the Prof, who designed this timetable in the first place) are sympathetic. Though there was one midwife who didn't allow one of us to sleep at all throughout his shift. And he had to drive out to this family planning clinic today and spend the whole day in seminars/lectures. Even doctors here don't do 24-hour shifts anymore. The most is 12 hours, and they're getting PAID for it. WTF.

6. The IMU students (4th & 5th years) had a nice Chinese New Year Eve dinner in Chinatown. Guess what I was doing instead? Inserting speculums and performing vaginal exams on a group of pleasant ladies in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Though the timing was not very convenient, it was a really good tutorial on vaginal examination. The simulated patients taught us everything and did a splendid job too ("No, no. You're not in deep enough. Press harder. Yes, that's much better."). It was a little bizzare at first, but very educational. It's good to see more women being more open-minded about their bodies and health.

7. How bout Valentine's Day then? I spent the 14th of February in the labour ward doing my 24-hour shift. Blarrdy.

So there. Not enough sleep, let alone time for study. Horrendously long travel time. No way to get around unless you've got a car/leech off someone else. All in all, it's been going ok. It has its moments. Thank goodness Aishah (a Singaporean girl in my batch) and I manage to get a lift from Jeremy (another Singaporean) on most mornings. And thank goodness some (not all!) of the registrars + Prof. are nice and keen on teaching. Still, I'm still pretty worried bout the end-of-rotation case/viva/OSCE. It's like after putting us through all the pressure and exhaustion, they expect us to magically acquire all the knowlege + skills to manage most O&G cases. At the rate I'm going, that is so not going to happen.

*Breathes deep* 4.5 weeks to go....

Sydney Trip

Long time no update?

Dear All,

Sorry for not updating. Been busy with a few things:

1. My family moved house months ago, but there're still a ton of things left over that needed sorting. Not to mention my Mom has been busy with all sorts of errands in addition to driving back and forth from my sisters' school/tuition/the old house/various locations in Subang Jaya. The best I could do was to help with the moving and help clean the new house as we are yet to hire a maid.

2. My grandma fell down again. The first time was earlier in September. I won't elaborate much on this today, perhaps in another post. The most important thing is she wasn't badly injured. She fell on the back of her head and lost quite an amount of blood. We suspect that she had a hypogycaemic attack while spreading out some clothes (which we told her not to). Though, as some of my close friends know, it isn't just her physical well-being I'm concerned about at the moment. I felt even more disheartened when my mom told me a few days ago that the wound got infected (she's diabetic btw). I hope that my grandma gets better soon, as my family could use some rest from all this stress.

3. Went to Sydney with Xian-Nian last week. The trip was lovely, albeit some cold, rainy weather for the first three days. Even so, I loved every minute of it. He'll be here in Adelaide for another 4 weeks for a selective in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital respiratory ward. Sometimes, I feel like this is all a dream. Like maybe I'm actually in a coma and all of this is just an illusionary world within my mind. Well, time to wake up 'cos tomorrow I have to start my first posting for Year 5: Human & Reproductive Health a.k.a. Obstetrics & Gynaecology. Oh no.....I'm so not prepared.... I quote the lovely Miss Nelly Furtado: Why do all good things come to an end?

4. Finally, the final and MOST IRRITATING THING THAT'S BEEN KEEPING ME BUSY. I took lots of pictures of my Sydney trip. And being the neurotic person that I am, I like renaming and grouping photo files. I thought my new Dell laptop, equiped with Windows Vista, would be a welcome change from my crappy Acer. Mana tahu, every time I try to rename multiple photo files and videos, Windows Vista will jumble up their sequence! This is especially for videos. For some stupid reason, it'll mix them up randomly in between my photos and be renamed under different names from the one I entered. The final blow was yesterday. I was trying to rename a huge batch of photos from my last day in Sydney when the jumbling nonsense occured again. So I clicked on "undo rename". Guess what happened? THE BLOODY WINDOWS VISTA DELETED ALL MY PHOTOS EXCEPT FOR 2!! 130+ PHOTOS GONE JUST LIKE THAT! THEY WEREN'T EVEN IN THE RECYCLE BIN! VANISHED INTO OBLIVION! OMGWTF!!! And of all the photos, these were the ones I didn't back up in Xian-Nian's thumb drive. So they were LOST. I have no idea how this happened. Spent the entire day from 8a.m. to 10.30p.m. weeping, moaning, cursing and searching frantically for a way to restore them. Finally found this programe called Recover My Files which managed to fish out half of the photos from from the deepest crevices of my hard drive.

So today I've backed up all my photo files. About 40 or so Sydney photos and 2 videos are still unaccounted for. Most likely I'll never see them again. At least I've gotten back half of the lot. Thank goodness for that. I'll avoid renaming my photos in this laptop from now on, unless Microsoft comes up with a solution to this fuckery.

Lessons learnt?

1. Photos may be lost, but the sweet memories will last a lifetime.

2. Back up everything.

3. Windows Vista sucks big time. Come up with an update for this QUICK!!!!

I'll post up photos of the Sydney trip some other day. Need to sleep early 'cos tomorrow it's gonna be my first day back to the hospital. Year 5 here I come....Zzzzzzz....

Christmas Eve Party 2007

Hehehe... a wonderful night. Minus the little accident after dinner (still trying to locate Ground Zero!). Everyone who came, glad you could make it. Andrew and Erna... wish you were there! Hope the next gathering at Vee Han's place will be just as if not more fun than this.

Yesterday the lustketeers (a term coined by Yoke Sin) + Vee Vern embarked on a KL walkabout. Literally. The monorail was slow due to some sytem malfuntion or some sort, so we had to do some extra walking from one LRT station to another. Spent some time in Petaling Street, Pavillion and met up with Meng Lee for lunch in between. By the time I got home, I was caked with layer upon layer of dried sweat. Ugh. Walking around KL wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the humidity and scary traffic. But it was a day well spent. =)

Nowadays I'm getting lazier and lazier when it comes to blogging about events. So... cue the photos!

All of us. It was a pot luck dinner: Seng Kiat + Shing Wei made mash potato and cheesecake, Ching Ee + Musen brought black pepper chicken, Calvin made bread and dip, Meng Lee + May Eve brought fruits and Barcadi, Vee Han made champagne jelly, Darling brought salad and cendol kuih and yours truly provided the venue + drinks + made some crappy chocolate cookies. :P Put that altogether and what do you get? A fabulous Christmas feast.

Vee Han's champagne jelly shots. Yes, they taste as good as they look. Love Seng Kiat's mash potato and cheesecake too. Being able to cook and clean well boosts a guy's attactiveness by like, 50 points. *Hint hint* Darling...

After dinner, we had a little gift exchange game. It was 90% fun and 10% disaster.

To all my dear readers and friends out there, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May the coming year bring you more joy and fulfillment than the last!