Dried curry leaves to down under...

A distant cousin of mine is a nurse in Australia. South Australia.

Her mother called my mother if we have any fresh curry leaves. We have 2 curry trees. One is enclosed in the chicken coop another one is further back. It's dark so I managed to get a few fronds of curry leaves from the one growing in the chicken coop. Fortunately, my pet chook doesn't peck me. Well silkies are the tamest breed of chicken. 2 roosters but they never fight. The 2 roosters are like buddies.

While plucking the curry leaves in the dark, something came into my mind.

CAN ONE BRING IN CURRY LEAVES INTO OZ?

And then, Trevor Noah's Australian Quarantine joke.

Not wanting to waste such a fine ingredient, I googled up on Oz's food quarantine.

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity

(p/s and my earworm is playing Waltzing Mathilda)

Blogging from my smart phone?

I wish I can. I know it is possible. I've just installed Blogger from Google Play to my smart phone.

But I can log in into this blog. Not an expert on IT.

Another thing to be considered. Can I continue my anonymity like I did now if I use my smart phone. In time like this I wish my bestie Simone is around to guide me how.

Uloh, putang ina!

Putang ina is a rude phrase. It means son of a bitch, literally, your mother is a bitch.

Last Thursday, a colleague of mine (Occupational Safety and Health student) 

I'm the only one who laughed. 

Speaking of SOB, in medical jargon, it means shortness of breath. Imagine if an English/English educated patient gasping for air, and the doctor said "this patient have SOB"

Imagine the confusion caused. The patient thinks that the doctor is being rude when the doctor is just describing his condition.

Why I wish medical students don't watch Gregory House...

House M.D is a good medical drama. A good drama as a drama but not good as an example.

One can learn how to make diagnosis with differentials diagnosis by watching House M.D. It's a good teaching aid. I recommend medical students out there to watch the drama.

You can ditch your Clinical Medicine book if you watch it religiously.

However, Gregory House is not a good example. His knowledge is but not his attitude. He has psychiatric issues anyway.

Most young doctors learnt that it is okay to be a jerk, just like Dr. House. I've seen a lot of those. Being a jerk just because Gregory House is. Don't they know he has mental issues to handle?

Ironically, medical student with psychiatric illness wouldn't act like a jerk. We can if we want to, but we know how hard it is to live with any illness. We are more empathic towards patients. We were in their shoes like literally.

So my advice to future doctors watching House M.D., please watch at your own discretion. You don't have to be a jerk in order to be 'cool'.

And other healthcare workers would appreciate it too!

(I've talk to nurses and technicians at the hospital. They all came to a mutually agreed conclusion. Doctors are indeed not really the sharpest scalpel on the trolley)

Asian Medical Drama

We were having our dinner at a restaurant. Well, the signboard said restaurant. In this region, any food and beverage outlet can be a restaurant. One can simply name their establishment a restaurant as long as food and drinks are served.

I'm not sure about the exact name of such establishment in other countries. Imagine a place selling food with the telly switched on. A bistro? A trattoria? A canteen?

While eating dinner, I watched (at a glance) the Korean drama in the telly. It's a medical drama.

Well, Korean drama is a craze here. Not my cup of tea though. I prefer the Japanese drama. Korean drama is too sappy. Augmented reality like their body. It's almost a fairy-tale like story plot. Okay, back to the medical drama.

There, a suspense music played. A lady was lying unconscious on the floor. Come 2 ER doctors, resuscitating the poor lady. A suspense drama should come with a thrilling scene. One of the doctor pulled out a portable Oxygen tank from his bag. Then a syringe with hypodermic needle.

I was expecting a tracheotomy. The scene was so tense. And... there, the lady, stabilized, gaining her conscious, with a NASAL PRONG/NASAL CANNULAE in her nostrils. While the other patron was concentrating on the telly, I laughed. Yes. It's funny. Why bother carry an oxygen tank when the patient can breathe through her nose? Never heard of Ambu Bag?

I was expecting the doctors to inject anaesthesia and incise the neck for tracheotomy, connecting the tracheostomy tube to the tank. The scene is not suspense enough for such sound effect.

Well, medical drama in this region is a crap. The formula for an Asian medical drama is (Handsome/Pretty doctors + complicated love + 'high tech' medical facilities*)

The best Medical Drama still goes to E.R.

It was written by a former medical student (like me) the late Michael Crichton M.D.

Grey's Anatomy? So sappy. Formula as above.

House M.D.? Hmmm I'll write a blog on it. I don't really like it and I promise I'll explain it in the other blog.

*Yes high-tech facilities but still the patients die. High tech gadgets without medical skills is like a gold ring on a pig's nose.

Singing in the class.

For our English class assignment, the lecturer gave us a task.

The task was to complete a travel log/plan for a writer. The countries provided for the assignment are Australia, South Africa, India, Canada and Ireland.

Naturally, when ever one mention these countries; Australia or New Zealand or Canada or South Africa, I would start to sing their National Anthem.

My seatmates were puzzled when I sang those anthems while doing my assignment.

I would start to sing ...Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free... to ...O Canada, our home and native land, true... to Nkosi sikelel iAfrica, malupha kanyis uPhondo lwayo...

Too bad New Zealand isn't in the list. I would have sing ...E ihoa atua, o nga iwi...

Well, India is in the list and I only can sing a few words.

I'm not a linguist but...

I'm not a linguist but I like to learn how people pronounce a word.

This may not be accurate. Better is pronounced differently among English native speaker.

UK (non-RP) would likely to omit the T in better.
It sounds like be'er. (imagine Jamie Oliver)

American substitute T with D.
It sounds like bedder.

Australians are more laid-back.
Their better sounds like Beta, like the Greek letter.

New Zealander and South African
Bitter?

Canadians are like American/British hybrid. The follow the American pronunciation (most of the time) while retaining British spelling.

Rest of the world
Pronounce batter and better the same way.

Please comment. My opinion might be different from yours.