UK food diary

As the title suggests, please proceed when you're prepared to feel the hunger cause it will make you hungry!

Pizzahut, Birmingham:

It's been ages since I last step foot into Pizzahut. I was quite glad that Yy suggested that we dined there. We seriously stuffed ourselves with the whole 3 course meal and it wasn't expensive. The pizza was still as good as how I remember it.

Malaysian Delight, Birmingham:

Firstly, I want to say that this restaurant is overrated. Truthfully, if it was not recommended by so many people, I would have had a really nice dining experience. But sadly, my judgement was clouded by so many good reviews from friends and I left really disappointed.

I had Milo ice, which was really diluted. I complained about it but nothing was done. Oh well, that's how Malaysians are like. I ordered Asam Laksa which is usually cooked with ikan kembung, but they substituted it with sardines instead. I guess we can't get fresh ikan kembung here. But overall, the laksa was quite authentic from the pineapple slices to the mint. Taste was not bad too. I guess it's just me expecting too high a standard.

Y3 had Cantonese stir-fried noodles, which she complained that the sauce wasn't think enough. Yy had Curry Mee which she said the noodles were too soggy. Hmmm, so it wasn't just me who was dissatisfied with the food. Between the 3 of us, we ordered seafood claypot, where we found the chinese cabbage to taste bitter. Wonder if they washed the insecticide off properly before cooking. Hmmmmmm...... Would I recomend this restaurant? Maybe cause there's a lot of choices from the menu. Just don't switch on the critic mode.

Keropok

Come to think of it, I think it has been years since I last ate keropok (prawn crackers). I was amused that Yy was so bewilded by how the keropok expanded and changed shape when I was frying them. Hahahaha. I made steamed egg as well, which turned out well despite the wrong proportion of egg to water. The photo on the upper right corner was our most healthy meal during our time at Preston.

Starbucks, Preston:

This is the life, having a nice mug of hot chocolate and a big slice of cheesecake while reading a brand new book without having to purchase it. It was weird how I picked a book which I thought I would never buy as it didn't look attractive in the first place only to finish the whole book and learnt a lot from it. Highly recommended: The Top 10 habits of Millionaires.

So Noodle Bar, Preston:

I had ngau ngam min (Spicy Beef noodles) which I really enjoyed. They gave us the biggest spoon ever. It was practicaly a small laddle. Other food were grilled eel and vegetarian tempura.

Try Thai, Manchester:

This is the most affordable restaurant that I've eaten at in the UK so far. Not only was the 6.75 pounds for a 3 course meal, the portion was huge and taste was not bad, provided that you like sweet stuff. Starters: Honey Roasted Pork Ribs, Tom Yam soup and Vegetable tempura. They were delicious.

From Pad Thai, Stir-fry Beef to Chicken curry. I thought that the food was really sweet. Everything tasted sweet. Maybe I wasn't used to Thai food. The portion was huge as well, and I ended up eating the most. Haih....no wonder I gained weight over the summer.

I was so sad that they only had Vanilla ice-creams. So, for my last course, I had English tea only while envying the other 2 with their ice-creams.

The Slug and Lettuce, Liverpool:

We went there to try out the food as I had a 40% discount voucher. I shared the large platter with another person and I thought the cook was a bit too enthusiastic that he set the fire too high. There were a lot of burnt bits. To finish off, I had Salmon Tagliatelle which I thought was a bit plain. If not for the voucher, our meal would have turned out to be really expensive.

Sefton Park Food Festival, Liverpool:

This was last Sunday. We had to take a cab there was it was quite a distance away. Quite a number of restaurants set up stalls there to promote their food. It was very happening as there was a huge crowd and the weather was perfect. We started with Siu Mai first, which was not bad.

From assorted nuts to Thai food. We were spoilt for choice. I got a free sample of pineapple and mint drink. Very different but not bad.

Most of us had Takoyaki and sushi from one of the stalls. I felt very fortunate to be able to enjoy such diverse food even thought I'm so far away from home. We were entertained by life performances while we enjoyed our food and the hot sun. I guess I'll really miss the sun soon as winter is approaching.

That's my longest food entry. Hope that you are not feeling too hungry at this point, cause I am.

I am so not ready to qualify as a doctor

I volunteered to help out for a Professionalism study which consists of 2 parts. Did the first part last year where it was only a small group discussion about what we thought about professionalism. I went for the 2nd part today which was held at the Simulation Centre at Aintree Hospital.

I went there with an open mind, not expecting anything, in other words, haven't prepared for it at all. When I reached there, I was given a tour of the simulation A&E room with everything from laryngeal airway masks to cardiac defibrillator which I could use. I was also introduced to Tom, the really high tech mannequin which is almost life-like who has pulse, breathing, etc.

I was then asked to wait outside till they set the place up. Wasn't even given a hint of what scenario that they'll put me through. Then the dreaded moment started. I was asked to go into the room. I had a nurse and a health care assistant(HCA) at my dispense.

My patient came in with asthma attack, couldn't complete sentences in one breath. I was like....sei loh, what should I do first?

The only thing which I could remember was ABC. So, I introduced myself as the doctor, asked how was the patient feeling. He said he couldn't breath and asthma. So I assumed that his airway was okay for the time being as he could still talk. Next I asked my HCA to set up ECG and pulse oximetry, the nurse to do ABG and bloods.

Then I thought it will be a good idea to listen to his chest. Ok, still got breath sounds. Sats came up to be 99%, so I could relax a bit. Then I was thinking...what's C again? Oh ya..circulation. Let me feel his carotid pulse. Tried to time it as well.

Ring! Ring! The telephone rang and I just asked the nurse and HCA to monitor the obs and just give me a shout if they started dropping. Ok, the pathology lab rang, gave me the ABG results which I copied down. Then I was looking at the figure...I cannot remember how to interprete this and what was the reference range again? Looked at it for 15 seconds and the HCA told me that the sats has started to drop. I was like...ok...let me abandon this ABG. Patient's situation is more important. Asked the nurse to set up nebulised salbutamol.

Was asked what dose to give....Ok...cannot remember so I asked him what is the usual dose. Ok. Give 5mg nebulised salbultamol.

Nurse gave the nebuliser, I was wondering how fast is the effect of salbutamol, and then the sats started to dip further. What should I do now????

Let me listen to his chest. Eh??? No breath sounds on the left. Since I cannot assess expansion on the mannequin, I asked the nurse how was the chest expansion. He told me there was none on the left.

'I think this is tension pneumothorax, could you prepare the needle for me to decompress it?, I wasn't even sure what sort of needle do they use, what colour. Was it the 2nd intercostal space midclavicular line?

By that time, the oncall anaesthetist ran in. I told him that I suspect that the patient has tension pneumothorax which he examined and agree with me. Then he said we had to get a chest x-ray first before he could stick a needle in. The HCA called the x-ray department and they said there'll be a 20 minutes wait. I was like....'I think we should decompress the pneumothorax before ordering the chest x-ray as the sats is dropping really quick now'.

Then I realised that I had been referring to the wrong side of the patient and the anaesthetist was going to puncture the wrong side. So, I quickly corrected myself and luckily he listened to me and deflated the correct side. Phew......then he asked what should I do next, I went...I don't know but I think we should get the chest x-ray done.

'That's the end now.', I was so relieved when the nurse told me that it was over. Next was the most painful part, to watch the whole video recording of what I'd done for the past 15 minutes and I had to comment on what I was thinking at each point in time.

I don't know if the supervisor was trying to make me feel better but he said I did well and not many of the previous candidate detected the pneumothorax. It was truly an unforgetable experience for me being placed in such a stressful situation for the first time, handling everything on my own. I was actually glad that I was given a chance to experience this when I've just started my 5th year. I realised how inadequate I was and I had better study harder and get the basics of emergency management drilled into my brain. I really have to learn how to interprete those ABGs as well! So much for ordering them and not knowing how to interprete it. Useless me!

Luckily it's not a real patient. I wonder how would I have felt if I'd killed a real person. Don't want to even go near there.

Black Country Living Museum

Apologies for the really late entry. Term started but still in holiday mood. So, had a bit of adjustment to do, not only to patterns of sleeping but also to mindset. I'm a final year medical student......that still sounds surreal to me. It is scary to know that I will be solely responsible for patients in less than 12 months. Need to learn as much as possible.

Black Country Living Museum - the best museum I've visited so far. Highly recommended as it appeals to any generation, no matter how young or how old you are.

Frankly speaking, the entrance did not look impressive at all. But wait till you get in there. We used the 2 for 1 offer by London Midlands, and I think it came up to less than 7 pounds each. Totally worth it.

That weekend was the only time they start up the world's first steam engine. It was impressive. I never imagined that we got to see it that up close, feeling the radiation of the heat and smelling the smoke from the burning coals.


A video of the steam engine in action.

Next was lunch. We went to the famous Hobbs Fish and Chip Shop dating all the way back to the 1930s and had the traditional fish cooked in beef dripping, and chips with a dash of salt and vinegar. There were pickled eggs and onions too.

Black country was all about coal mining. It was this industry that brought this place consisting of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, and Wolverhampton its industrial revolution. No doubt transportation was important at that point in time. We got to take the old double-decker bus within the museum, which was really cool.

There were functional trams which you could catch. All the buildings there were all original historical buildings from around Black Country, transported and restored at this open air museum. It seemed like I was transported back in time with people dressed in the olden days clothings explaining how life went about in the past.

There were so many cute little shops selling all sorts of things. I really like looking at these really old things and realise how good the quality of the products were as compared to the normal pvc packaging we get today.

From all sorts of perfumes to shavers. I heard many comments from the older visitors that they use to see their parents use the products or even used it themselves when they were younger.

Live street performance. One reason why I'm glad that I'm a girl. Won't get kissed by any of them. Hahaha.

Notice the 'toilet paper'? Wonder what's the date on it. At least it is the water flush system.

Old school where you can attend lessons teaching you 12 inches - 1 foot, 4 poles - 1 chain, everything except the metric system.

The worker's institute. How old is that telephone?

There was a canal tunnel trip which you have to pay extra for it. We would have went for it if we had more time and money.

The cleanest pig I've seen and the biggest horse too.

There was a really old funfair. I tried the fortune telling machine, inserted 20p but no fortune came out. Looked closer, there was a small piece of fortune displayed on the palm of the mannequin. Felt so cheated.

Gas anyone?

This was the highlight of the place - The underground mine tour. We really got to go underground. I don't know how deep did we go but I felt the temperature difference. It was cold down there. They made us wear helmets and go in small group with a torch each. Down there, they explained how coal was mined. Too bad photography wasn't allowed. Even if it was, I wouldn't be able to take any photo in that pitch black tunnel.

Finally, we made our way back to Birmingham to catch our train back. Goodbye Black Country. May I step foot there again.

Waiting for the train

Are you sure that's the wheelchair access?

I really did enjoy myself that day with all the live demonstrations, descriptions about the past, soundless cinema, etc. It was weird that this place hasn't been advertise that much. I only found out about it while surfing for the offer by London Midland for Cadbury Chocolate Factory. Would love to bring my parents there one day.

Why are holidays so short? Why???

Concrete

Consciousness
Never have I been so afraid of waking up

Awareness
Never have I experienced such excruciating pain and humiliation

Terrified
Never have I been so scared of another human being

Cruelty
Never have I imagined that one can even enjoy do such things

Plea
Never have I cried so much for help and yet nobody cared

Live
Never have I thought I would lose the will of living

Death = End
Never have I wished to die so badly

Wouldn't it be much kinder?

Please tell me it is all a bad dream...

Inspired by Junko Furuta and the song Taion by The Gazette