Melbourne

Thanks to the the ad they put around train stations, I get to know it's only 11 days till the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.. not that we'll have time to go to any events this year but the program is indeed rather impressive. Shame most of the events I wanted to go are sold out anyway.. better luck next year, if I can stand the Aussie accent till then.. just why can't Aussies say "sIck" properly?!

Little did I know there are at least 20+ Farmers Markets in Melbourne...so.. even if we go to one every month...

After we've exhausted all the eateries in near-by Glen Waverley I guess we'll turn to this website for more inspiration.

In the mean time, Dani's kitchen is the best.

..that internal medicine is much more than a job..

Is internal medicine much more than a job? may be this New York blog will inspire you to think it is. I myself haven't read it yet.

Having just started my research based job here in Melbourne, our job is currently our life. Forget Valentines day, forget Chinese New Year.. there were really no real celebrations on the Sunday just passed. Very sad really. It's our first CNY away from home and our greetings to my folks on this all important date on the calendar lasted a little more than 30 seconds over the phone. Pathetic really.

In the middle of all this endless "researching" using Ovid/PubMed and of course google now, my hidden spiritual curiosity guided me to this website, looks good, punchy title at least. http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/ Have I read it yet? Save for later.

Tribute to Pauly Fuemana

Apart from being the man who "broke cultural barriers and put South Auckland on the map for all the right reasons.", I have many reasons to feel sad that the singer of "How Bizarre" died, among which..

- I was a Seventh Former in 1995, they just started to call it Year 13. We have a new common room for "seniors" at St Peters just the year before. How Bizarre was playing all day long there.

- I started using Windows for Workgroups 3.11 to get on interent.. people still buy CD, as burning an audio CD takes about 45mins on an 1x CD burner.

- In 2006, I got into medicine. How Bizarre.

South Auckland lost one of its greatest sons on 31 Jan, 2010.

sit back, relex, and enjoy your sleep

Now thanks to Air New Zealand - sleeping flat in cattle class is soon becoming a reality.

a great loss

I heard that Dr Black, one of the most astute physician in Auckland, died on Sunday at home.

He is arguably one of the most outspoken doctors in General Medicine at Auckland. His views often polarize his contemporaries. He is a dedicated doctor, with work ethics that frankly don't exist among the Generation Y era of doctors. He is a smart, bright and keen teacher. Every doctor who graduated from Auckland in the last 10 years would have learnt their pharmacology from him.

I worked with and for him as a first year registrar few years ago. I always thought it would be a privilege to work with him again, when I'm older, wiser and hopefully understand more of what he tries to teach. Sadly, that'll not happen.

The everyday practice of Medicine challenges our own mortality. It is with profound sadness that I learnt he departed us today.

kongguksu

You have to try this Korean dish. It is quite possibily one of the best food I've eaten in 2009. The cold soy milk soup base is like nothing you've tasted before. Interested? try to make it yourself!

http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kongguksu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WySFTC3TAOw

Dine Aid

Check it out, this is one of the few smart initiatives around as we approach the season of celebrating and giving. The other notable one has to be the Sally ad on TV. Give generously.

Canon S90

I have only ever own 2 digital cameras, an Olympus D-370 1.3MP I bought in 2001, never really used it much as the pictures really aren't that great for print. Then it was 2005, when the landmark Panansonic LX1 was released in July 2005. I bought it in 2006 and used it ever since. Loved the pictures, been with me to every overseas trip and of course, taking pictures of my lovely girlfriend, now wife.

I was tossing between Canon S80 or LX1 then, went for LX1 largely because I want to give the "underdog" a go, Panasonic was new to the game and good on them to give it a crack. There were some other reasons as well but can't remember now.

If it's not for Derek, I wouldn't even know Canon decided to make the S series alive again after 4 long years.. during that time Panasonic has released LX2, and LX3. Suffice to say I'm still happy with my LX1...

Now, with a F2.0 fast len, I indeed will consider S90 to be my next camera. I will be prepared to sacrifice the advantage of 10x zoom of the Fuji F70 EXR. The two camera is just designed for different purpose.

Fujifilm F70 EXR

Today's blog is going to be incredibly boring, or interesting, depending on how you look at it.. it's going to be full of links that I haven't been manage to explore, just yet.

Eurpoean stroke organisation

Doc Store - there are soo many documents here.

Stroke updates (UK site)

ACP Hospitalist

GSM arena - reviews on mobile phones

Australasian Stroke Trials Network

Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine

Stroke Engine - Canadian site

and of course the F70 EXR camera.. possibily the best compact around for now

you can't associate the other person with trouble..

Every couple needs some time out from their kids, work, and family - at least that's the way things go these days. Some thought provoking lines in this crazy comedy. Just what you need for a Friday evening.