In The Driver's Seat
Went to test drive a couple of cars today.
I have zero experience driving in Australia. Coupled with my unfamiliarity with the roads as well as the rules, I think my friends in the car were let's say... slightly traumatized by my Malaysian style driving.
Well, at least I got the car back in one piece and nobody honked/cursed/gave me the finger.
Conclusion? Definitely need a few lessons to familiarize myself with Victorian driving before actually driving solo.
My nerves. They're in shreds.
Labels: Life
Spaces
Decided to bake a batch of cookies today and made one of the mistakes that shouldn't really be made by someone who has done a fair amount of baking - not leaving enough space between each cookie!
The truth is that I was just too lazy to start up a second tray and therefore decided to just cram everything into the one.
The result? Misshapen cookies. Very sad.
Will stlll attempt to decorate them and call them..... whimsical hearts. Avant garde. Unique. Asymmetrical.
Labels: Food
Why I Like Quality Bags
People always tell me buying an expensive bag is no different from buying an inexpensive bag - the only difference is the brand.
"All you need is something to carry your things from point A to point B anyway. One doesn't need something that costs hundreds to do that, does one?"
I'm now going to say - yes. One does.
And I can justify it!
I've been carrying around an inexpensive bag to uni for the past couple of weeks. It's large and roomy and is good for people like me who just want to throw everything and anything into the bag. I
was happy with it.
Then I started noticing that my diary looked rather aged recently. So did my key holder.
First I wrote it off as general wear and tear but I have now discovered that the true reason is that the
bag dye is bleeding into my stuff.
Very upset, because I take care of my things and now I have no idea how to unbleed it!
Other reasons include:
1. The smell. Cheap bags always smell of some sort of PVC/plastic/very cheap clothes. I don't really know what it is, but it doesn't smell pleasant. Nice bags smell of leather. Indeed, I always aver that one doesn't even have to touch a good quality bag to know it's good. One can
smell it.
2. They actually do last longer than cheap bags. Of course, one can't expect the bag to last
forever, but it definitely lasts longer than an average one. The handles are always the first to go. And the zips.
3. They never bleed. Stuff may bleed
into them (blame stuff, not bag), but they don't bleed outwards. *fume*
Conclusion? I tried to revert back to inexpensive bags, or at least have a mix of some sorts. I really did. But now, I can only tell everyone that they should invest in a good bag. Or several.
Labels: Life
Purchase of the week
Went to Niddrie and bought lustre powder - my purchase of the week.
What is lustre powder? It's shimmery powder that's edible and is used to dust and paint cakes. Am currently absolutely
dying to try it out but need another essential ingredient - vodka.
Will post up pictures when I use it.
Labels: Life
Rude Awakening
Was napping this afternoon, enjoying the quiet life of an afternoon off when I heard the door open.
Thought it could be my housemate back home early from uni. Then I heard a male voice that I didn't recognise and decided....maybe not.
Turns out it was the real estate agent, with throngs of people ready to inspect my home.
Yes, I had forgotten all about the apartment inspection.
Panicked, I feebly attempted to neaten up my apartment in 10 seconds, all the while disorientated from my sleep. Agent tried to be nice, then proceeded to supposedly joke, telling me that we had too many shoes and are those cookies on the table for them?
Har har. Har.
Anyway, was pretty embarassing in all. Did however, find out that my apartment was valued at almost half a million. Which is mind boggling.
Labels: Life
Let It Be
Everyone that I've told The Secret to has just laughed and said I'm just romanticizing coincidence.
If it's coincidence, plenty of great coincidences has been happening to me lately.
Life is... good.
Labels: Life
Nasi Lemak
With the combined efforts of me and my friends, we managed to produce a semi-passable nasi lemak.
I miss Malaysian food!!
Labels: Food
Tense
Lately I've been feeling rather tense.
I triple check which tooth I'm going to do a filling on. I worry about hurting people's feelings. I stress about what people say about me and to me - is it true? Am I really that sort of person? Is what they say justified?
In a way I feel torn. I feel I'm going one way yet I'm being pulled another way. Yet not really sure where I'm supposed to go.
Does this make any sense at all?
Confused.
Labels: Ramblings
Bitchin' Night
Reserved a night during the weekend to kick back and well... bitch.
Because the truth is that that's what girls do
all the time sometimes. We eat, go through dental school with unreasonable patients, unreasonable nurses and unreasonable circumstances. Then we bitch about it.
In honor of that night I decided to bake a cake and here's the result:
It's a chocolate buttercake with Nutella cream icing (yes, still not sick of Nutella yet), decorated with piped chocolate and Tim Tams.
Incidentally, I would like to reiterate that my cake plate was worth every last penny I coughed up for it.
I heart it. A lot.
Labels: Food, Life
I'm Just Going To...
My friend worked with me in clinic today commented that she loved observing our
dentist mode. That is to say, how we act around our patients.
I mean, obviously we behave differently when we are talking to our patients compared to our normal selves. I can't be
Dental Girl when I'm with them, I have to be
Dr Dental Girl.
Anyways, apparently I start all my sentences with..."I'm just going to..."
... sit you down now.
...numb you up.
...start cleaning your teeth.
...get the demonstrator to come have a look.
Omg...how many more times in my life am I going to repeat the first 3 sentences?
Labels: Dental School
Floss
Couldn't live another day without something sweet to eat and decided to indulge myself. Flicked through a few recipes and decided to bake a chocolate cake.
Very pleased that there will be 2 potluck dinners this weekend, which means 2 perfectly reasonable excuses to bake 2 cakes. And decorate it!! The mere prospect of it gives me great delight.
Anyway, I've always read that dental floss was good for cutting cakes. I always brushed off the idea, "Well duh, nothing a knife can't do." However, decided to try it today and it works spectacularly! Extremely pleased with the clean cuts it produces.
Hmm... can a toothbrush make petals more lifelike? Will using my perio probe help me achieve symmetrical lines down to the milimetre? Can a polishing strip remove rough edges from my cakes?
Yes, I have entered dental geek territory.
Labels: Food
Errands
Lots of things have come up lately.
Everyone has been encouraging me to get my Victorian driving licence before I graduate so that I won't have to worry about having to do it after I get my PR here. Now realize that I have to go through the whole exam thing all over again.
It's good in a way that I am not the best driver around - the awful truth is that I can't parallel park unless there's 2 parking spots in a row. So it'll be good to go through a refresher course.
Will also have to start thinking about doing stuff related to getting PR here...the IELTS test, start gathering documents etc.
I guess this is it - I really am going to stay in Australia - at least for a while.
Labels: Life
19th of May, 2008
1. Nutella + water crackers = heaven.
2. Patient at 10.30am + denture still not delivered to lab at 9.30am = Stress
3. Patient at 10.30am + denture arrived at 10.15am = Extreme relief and bliss
4. Patient with lots of saliva + denture adjustments having to remove the denture every 5 minutes and putting it back = not so heaven.
5. Cloudy afternoon + half day of uni = Perfect napping conditions.
Turning out to be a pretty good day. :D
Labels: Dental School, Food
Random Thoughts
1. If something isn't going to matter a week from now, it's not worth getting worked up over it. Some people say if it's not going to matter a
year from now, but I like to start small.
2. Apparently the bevel of the needle should be directed to the surface of the bone when injecting LA. That's the last sentence I read in Malamed before I promptly fell asleep.
3. Cooking too much food eventually means eating too much, leading to weight gain if one doesn't control the situation.
4. I'd forgotten how good Il Dolce Freddo's tasted until I relived the experience a couple of nights ago. It is divine. Amazing that I actually worked there for 3 months.
5. Watched
Priceless yesterday. Ridiculously unrealistic story line, but amazing clothes and accessories to ogle at.
Labels: Ramblings
A Teaspoon of Determination, A Roll of Swiss...
As you readers are all too aware by now, I love baking.
I've done tiered cakes, piped buttercream roses, made 3D butterflies out of chocolate, made fondant flowers, croquembouche, the shebang.
But one thing I have never succeeded in doing until now is....to roll a Swiss roll.
Sad but true.
After 6 failed attempts I was at the verge of giving up. Honestly, when your Swiss roll ends up looking more like a very ugly sandwich of cake, things are not very encouraging.
However, after cleaning up my apartment today, I decided that today is
the day my Swiss roll will roll, like a proper Swiss roll is meant to be.
And it did!! 7th time's the charm, I say.
My Swiss roll, all rolled up. Sigh...
Filled with pure Nutella.
Moral of the story? It's all about determination and perseverance.
Very pleased.
Labels: Food
Tagged
Miss Milk tagged me weeks ago and now I respond in my slow ambled manner.
The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people
1. Had many 'nearest' books seeing book shelf is right next to desk. Mused about what would be the least juvenile sounding book to quote but decided - sod it, if I seem juvenile, so be it. Today's choice will be from Andersen's Fairy Tales.
2. Page 123 - 2nd page of the tale "The Snail and the Rose Bush".
3. Fifth sentence - "There came up from the ground a strength to me, there came a strength from above."
4. Next 3 sentences -
"I experienced a degree of pleasure, always new, always great, and I was obliged to blossom.
It was my life, I could not do otherwise."
"You have had a very easy life." remarked the snail.
5. Tag 5 people.
Right. Lemme see. I don't actually know who reads my blog, but I'm going to give it a go:
i) Mayne
ii) Jolyn
iii) Keili from White Tissues
iv) Rachel from DelandRachel
v) Berenice from Orange Spirals
Dental Girl Is Obsessed
Spent my day cleaning out my apartment. By cleaning out I mean
really cleaning out - every nook and cranny.
I never go into cleaning frenzies like this, mainly because I honestly can't be bothered. But today, no speck of dust stood a chance against me.
Managed to come up with a few new ways to organize the clutter in my house and as a result have a much neater apartment now. All I need is someone to kindly volunteer to take our unwanted clothes to Salvation Army. Yes, this is a large hint to anyone who wants to participate in this worthy worthy cause. Would do it myself, if I could physically drag 3 boxes full of clothes there.
On another note, I've been getting a lot of cuts/bruises on my hands and I have no idea where they're coming from. This leads to the need to Tegederm everything. Now, I know Tegederm really works blabla, but every time I rip it off I feel as if I just made my wound worse. Perhaps I should try with some gauze over it first before applying...
The weekend beckons. Fully intend to make full use of it before Monday comes along again.
Labels: Life, Obsessions
Passionfruit Cupcakes
Extremely belated photos of cupcakes I baked for a 21st in April. Passionfruit cupcakes!
Ingredients for cupcake:
1 cup self raising flour
2 eggs
30g butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 170g can of passionfruit pulp, strained to remove the seeds.
Method:
1. Preheat over to 180 Celcius (160 for fan forced). Line cupcake tray with cupcake paper. Number of cupcakes will depend on the size of your tin. I managed to get about 30 mini cupcakes from this recipe.
2. Mix all the ingredients together except the passionfruit pulp with a mixer until it's nice and pale (maybe about 10 minutes of high speed mixing).
3. Add about 2/3rds of the passionfruit pulp into the mixture and combine.
4. Pour into cupcake tins, filling only about halfway (cupcakes will rise spectacularly).
5. Bake until cakes spring back when touched and are lightly golden. Leave to cool.
6. Pipe the remaining passionfruit pulp into the centre of the cake for an extra surprise.
7. Ice and decorate as desired.
Labels: Food
Ball of Bad Thoughts
Was on the tram at 7.30am in the morning, visualizing my bad thoughts being downloaded into a pulsating blue ball and then flinging it out to outer space. 5 minutes later I got off the tram and realized I had just missed my connecting tram by a couple of minutes.
Took it very philosophically and concluded I didn't want to get onto that tram anyway, and that being late was actually sometimes good for health.
Ended up having a pretty okay day, even though I managed to remove the
wrong filling. Note to self: Never, ever assume that distal aspect means it's on the crown - it may also mean on the root! Anyway, I justified my act - 13D cavities should have tooth coloured fillings anyway, not amalgam!
Also had the joy of using a
real rubber dam puncher. The kind that
actually punches holes. Unlike the ones in RDHM where it kinda does a half-hearted punch, leading to increased likelihood of rubber dam tears and stress. Although I have identified which ones punch better than others... it's a secret I'll never tell. Lol.
Am not only addicted to corn on the cob right now, but also mandarin oranges.
Labels: Dental School
Productivity
1. Cook meals for the rest of the week - check.
2. Get some passport photos - check.
3. Submit Working With Children form - check.
4. Buy foundation (self-pampering of the week) - check.
5. Find envelopes to match stationery - check.
6. Clean up room - check.
Bonus things?
For some reason the post office took my passport photographs for free. Is that supposed to be?
Oh, and got a gift pack from Lancome as well as a free facial - current promotion running in Myer. So instead of 20 lipglosses, I now have
22 lipglosses.
And I love corn on the cob.
Great day.
Labels: Life
Lips Matter
Was organizing my cosmetics and decided to put together my makeup into categories e.g. lips, eyes, face, skincare. Previously they were sorted out by colour coordination.
Well, lumped every lip thing I had and ended up with this:
20 different shades of lipcolors.
I think it's safe to say I won't have to buy any new ones for quite a while.
Labels: My Organized Life
Dose of Luck
Today was the final visit for my patient after a lengthy treatment plan.
She came in and gave me this:
I have received presents from my patients before, but never a thank you card. There's something about a written appreciation that just warms the cockles of my heart.
And look what she said!!!
"Thank you so much and all the best for the future, lots of
good luck.
And the present? A candle.
Why am I making it so significant?
1. 2 days ago I sat in my room and I said...'Yeap. Need candles. But don't want to buy candles, seeing they're completely unnecessary frivolous things."
2. I was whining that my luck has been running low. I mean, who loses 2 pairs of safety glasses
and a patient's denture all within 2 weeks? And what does my patient shower me with?
I feel so much better. Better than I have felt for the past few weeks.
I'm blessed.
Labels: Dental School
Universal Cafe
There's a restaurant on Lygon St called Universal Cafe that me and my friend always go to.
Always.
To be honest, the only thing that's good there is their Paul's Special Pasta, which actually tastes good. Everything else there is mediocre
but they have large serving sizes and the prices are reasonable. Oh, and they're open pretty late at night, which is often the time we go out for a late night snack.
Every time we go we will comment that the food is really
not that great and it's not worth going. But we always end up there somehow someway.
Anyway, after last night, it's official. We're really never going there again.
Mark our words.
Vision
In my mind's eye, it appeared.
I saw my dream house and on a shelf was a row of agendas, all in different colours, but the same series.
One was my own for daily calendar writings, another for housekeeping, another for my recipes and the last one was... not mine.
It was sharp image, almost like a memory.
Labels: Obsessions
Thoughts
So apparently whatever internal monologue that's going on in your head is reflecting in your outer actions.
Decided to pay more attention to what I was saying to myself all day and realized it was well...pretty negative.
Either I'm worrying about the coming week on Sunday instead of enjoying my day off, or I'm just randomly babbling in my head about things that I should have done better etc.
Must stop.
I don't know what I want.
Thus have gone to Koko Black to buy myself a box of chocolates so I can lie in bed with them and think about it.
Off I go.
Labels: Life
Hello, Remember Me?
My aunt from Penang came to visit and handed me a boxful of beh teh saw and tambun biscuits from the famous Him Heang shop.
Eating them has somehow been giving me strange feelings of... home.
Lately I've been feeling that no matter how much I deviate from my past life and how much I have changed, at heart deep down inside I am still a small town girl from Batu Pahat.
People say my accent is still very Malaysian, and they're surprised that almost 6 years of being in Australia has not wiped it out of me. Especially since most of my friends I hang out with now were born here. The truth is, perhaps I want to keep it. It is after all one of the only things left about me that suggests my roots.
I confess I have forgotten who I am, clouded by the present life and most of all, neglect.
I miss me.
Labels: Food
Always Check The Rubbish Bin
It's all a cruel cruel joke.
I saw a patient for the first time yesterday. She took off her dentures and set it on the bracket table, wrapping it up in a piece of tissue paper.
I did the initial examination, formulated my treatment plan, gave her a good scale and clean and sent her away. Then I got a nurse to clean up the bay while I wrote up my notes and prepared for my next patient, who was already sitting in the waiting room.
Went to bed last night with a clear conscience.
Boy, was I wrong.
Went into clinic today and was assailed by her at 10.30am, demanding to know where her denture was.
Turns out the nurse must have overlooked the tissue paper as being nothing but tissue paper (to be honest, how could she have known?) and threw it out along with the rest of the things on the bracket table.
Apologized profusely to the lady, and then promised to make her a new denture. She was very nice about it after my 20th "Oh my gosh, I am
so sorry."
Why do things like this keep happening to me?
Labels: Dental School
Tough Love
For the past couple of weeks I've been having a rather strict demonstrator take care of me.
"Why is the patient's headrest in such a uncomfortable position?"
"It's 9am already, why isn't your patient in the chair yet? Time management!"
"If you want me to even
look at your radiograph, you'll have to mount it up first."
"There's sodium perborate
all over the tooth. Are you going to be a messy dentist?"
It was very stressful. However....today...
"That was a lovely incisal edge repair you did. Very nice."
"Did you take this PA? Very good angulation!"
I admit it - the scarcer one makes their praise, the more you crave it. I shall treasure those 2 comments, and hold them close to my heart.
Labels: Dental School
Kaya
Made myself a huge batch of kaya to stuff myself with for the rest of the week.
It's an addictive substance - eating a slice of bread with it just means that I'll have to eat another slice. And another. And another and another and another!
Have decided that I must start studying for the year before I end up a nervous wreck in October. Having trouble starting due to the fact that I love doing... um... nothing.
Have also gained many valuable life lessons over the past week.
Nothing like good old life lessons to slap you into action.
Piping
Decided that I wanted to teach myself how to pipe roses.
3 hours later and numerous "I can't do this anymore!!!!!!" I finally produced some semi-passable roses.
My right arm is
not going to thank me tomorrow and I have enough of cupcakes and baking for a while.
Exhausted.
Labels: Food
