Thunderstorm

Kah Leong was awakened by the sounds of thunder. He half-opened his groggy eyes and could see flashes of light from the window slit. The usual monsoon thunderstorm..... Expectedly, he heard footsteps scuffling. Ma always came into his room to close the windows when it rained.

Kah Leong called out, "Ma...?"

"Wake up bro, stop dreaming!" Someone shook him in the darkness.

Kah Leong realised he was not at home. He was not in his pajamas. He was in his long four and his boots were still on. He was at the battlefield.

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Kah Leong hated his life when he was a full time national serviceman. What was the point? He liked to give the excuse that he was peace loving. The rifle was too heavy for him. War was never a possibility.

Overnight, things changed. The home that he knew was reduced to rubbles in a matter of minutes. He was spared as he was working in the business district. Perharps the enemy had only bombarded residential areas to instill fear. Perharps they had wanted to preserve the business infrastructure.

Kah Leong's family was not so fortunate. After the bombardment, he went to what was left of his terrace house. He searched frantically for his loved ones. There were bits and pieces of human flesh everywhere. He saw a detached arm and recognised it to be his sister's. After hesistating for a minute, he found a clothe and wrapped the arm in it. He could find noting else.

Kah Leong's legs were weak and he could no longer stand. He kneeled down crying, hugging his sister's remains. Where was Ma? Could she had gone out and was seeking refuge somewhere? But Ma never went out much...... How could this have happened? War was so far away......

The millitary police found him a few days later still ramaging through the ruins. They brought him back to his reservist unit.

Kah Leong was a peace loving man. Now he is filled with anger and hatred. Now he wanted to carry arms. To fight. To seek revenge. To take back the land which belonged to him and his people.

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Kah Leong wiped away his tears and picked up his M16. Somehow, he could no longer feel the weight of his rifle. He followed his platoonmates out of the tentage. They were under enemy artillery bombardment.

It was not a thunderstorm.

Why They So Like Dat?

Last week got many holidays, so Dr Og managed to steal some time off and go out with friends.

We were at a HiFi exhibition when my friend made unsubstantiated statement no. 1:

"They say this HiFi set sibei solid."

When I probed further about who they were, he could not tell me and this lead to unsubstantiated statement no. 2:

"I read about it from somewhere"

Of course anal retentive me cannot let it just go down like that so I asked where was this somewhere? This did not lead to anymore statements. My friend got angry with me and left.

How often it is that we hear people telling us that "they tell us this treatment good" or "read somewhere that this was useful". How often it is that people get angry when we tell them not to trust they.

The big question is really how can we become they and spread some correct messages for once.

Who are this people making irresponsible, unsubstantiated and evidenceless remarks?

And why they so like dat?

小明的日记簿 Episode 3:

小明的日记簿 is an epic novel which depicts the ridiculous life of a medical student. The characters of this epic novel are fictional. Any similarities with person(s) dead or alive is purely due to your own imagination

Foreword:
In the last episode of 小明的日记簿, Jassie commented:
"HAHAHA kinda reminds me of harry potter though... tom riddle's diary... "
Just wanna say that my story is on a hairy doctor..... not harry potter!
And there ain't no magic in medicine........


Mao Mao was hairy even as a little boy. He especially hated it when those ugly aunties with their curly hair and acne cratered face came over and pinch him on the cheeks saying "wah boy boy so much hair, soooo cute!" He was worried that they would infect him with the acne germs. Being hairy was bad enough, protect his complexion he must.

Mao Mao would later learn in microbiology classes that the germs he was so afraid of was Propionibacterium acnes, a skin bacteria. For now, Mao Mao was just a freshman not really enjoying his orientation.

He had no idea what the hell they were doing. Apparently it was a float like those in Chingay. As with the tradition of the medical faculty, the theme of the float was some Disney cartoon.

"Wah lau, sibei embarrassing...." Mao Mao thought. The other faculties were making cool stuff like dragon with coke cans or some post modern structures. "Disney cartoon..... sigh....."

At least tonight was the last night of orientation. But tonight they can't go home. The float had to be perfect! They were making the final touches for the judging tomorrow morning. Just as Mao Mao was relaxing one corner, Meng Kee appeared all excited. "Heh we've got allocated a good job tonight!"

Before Mao Mao could protest they were driven by a year two senior in his BMW 5 series to the carpark where the float presentation would take place the next day. A pretty fresh(wo)man in supermini mini skirt was in the front seat. The castle part of the float had already been transported to the carpark.

"Ok dudes get off here, you guys jagar the castle. be careful the law people come and vandalise!" The senior than drove off with the pretty fresh(wo)man and the mini skirt become more and more mini as they disappeared into the night.

"Wah lau, drive us here also need to have female escort meh?" Mao Mao complained. Plus he had heard from his friend in law fac that they were going to boycott the entire float thingie since they lost every year anyway. They were probably getting drank in someone's hostel room tonight. "Jagar simi? Think I security guard......"

Meng Kee took out a green groundsheet from his bag and laid it on the floor. "Good mah, volunteer and get in the good books of the seniors! Somemore here no need to do anything, can sleep!" He proceeded to lie down to snooze.

Before Mao Mao even sat down on the ground sheet, Meng Kee was already snoring away. Mao Mao felt itchy all over. Being hairy, he trapped plenty of heat and those damned insects had a hard time flying out of the hairy maze in his legs once they flew in.

Mao Mao was looking for some cream in his bag when he saw that diary again. He had forgotten all about it after dumping it in his bag that day.

He had the whole night ahead of him, this could prove interesting......

He flipped to page one, "这是小明的日记簿。生人勿进!”

Then he turned the page,

" 七月十五，晴天。

为了她，我来到了这个鬼地方。
起初我以为我会放得下。

也许我会想你，
也许我会忘记，
也许已没有也许。

至少进入了医学院，我天天都能看得到她！今天上解剖学讲座，她就坐在我下面！噢！我小明发誓，一定要追到她........"

"Wah biang!" Mao Mao thought. "This senior is like some perverted stalker with a penchant for cheesy chinese songs!!"

Before he could read on, he heard a car approaching fast. The car came to a screeching halt right in front of them. The headlights were blaring into his eyes but Mao Mao could make out the silhouette of a girl came out of the car.

"Hi, I'm Julie. I brought you guys supper."

Julie is good. Julie is Mao Mao's favourite brand of biscuits.

龍門客棧 Kopi Tiam

When I woke up yesterday morning, I had this feeling that it was going to be a perfect day. Actually I didn't exactly wake up, I was lying in my bed having been up the whole night. My newborn baby gave me a hard time the night before. (Yes! I am the married Dr Og! Hence also the poorer one.....)Since my mother was finally awake, we dumped handed the little one over to her and headed for my favourite kopi tiam for my regular cup of kopi peng.

It was only 7am and most lazy Singaporeans were still sound asleep on this Deepavali morning. The kopi tiam was empty. We took the most convenient seats right in front of the mee pok store. It was the only store opened other than the drink store. Needless to say, we ordered mee pok.

We were carrying on with our mundane (and hence perfect) routine when a man appeared. He was a 50s/Ch/M, tanned and in polo-tees and shorts. Without saying a word, he sat down on our table, next to me, and shouted for a bowl of mee kia tah. I looked around, the rest of the coffeeshop was empty. And he must sit at our table. Asshole!

Before our mee pok was ready, an aunty 40s/Ch/F, came into the coffeeshop with presumably her son, a 15/Ch/M. The aunty in pajamas spoke in English and asked her son to sit at the table in front of the mee pok store while she go order drinks. The duo subsequently sat down, without asking, next to the tanned man who was next to me and my wife.

The table was getting crowded and the atmosphere getting tensed. No one was talking. My wife nudged me to indicate that she wanted to move to another table. I nudged her back. No one was going to spoil my perfect morning! I was staying PUT.

Then the man took out a box from him shorts. He slammed it on the table. It was a packet of cigarettes with a picture of a mouth with rotten teeth uncannily similar to his. I wondered if he was the model for the picture, hmmmm..... He picked up the packet of cigarettes, tossed it slightly and a stick stuck out of the box, beckoning. In one swift motion, he picked the cigarette out of the box with his mouth and lighted it with one of those green coloured 50 cents lighter.

The man has drawn first blood.

I stared at the man with contempt.

He turned away to exhale but the fan blew the smoke back towards the table into my face.

I fanned the smoke away in disgust.

The aunty stared at the man as well and the boy was on cue and let out a few coughs in protest.

The man stared back at me. Our eyes met. (Again this one not my patient. hahaha)

My wife was getting worried. Staring incidents do become fatal. After a while of eye sparing (and staring). The man put out his cigarette. My staring worked!(but my wife insisted later it was because the cigarette finished liao.... Women!) The man gobbled down his mee kia and kopi. He left but not before staring at me one last time. This time I pretended to look away because I realized he was much bigger size than me when he stood up. (Not say I scared lah, but my wife with me can?)

After he left, the mother and child became quite chatty. The mother was reminding his son not to take any cold drinks as he was coughing just now. Then she was teaching her son how to eat properly. "Must chew your food!" "Stop playing with your food." And how he must go home and study after breakfast as 'O' Levels was round the corner.

And in the ultimate show of motherly love, she took out a dental floss and passed it to her son. The boy looked embarrassed and let out a little whine. "What? you want me to do it for you isit?" The mother threatened and started twisting her own dental floss around her two index fingers.

Lo and behold, mother and child were showing off their perfect dentition in front of us. The incisors, the premolars, the molars and even the wisdom too.... eh actually both also din have wisdom teeth...... I don't know what the dentist say to their patients, but whatever they're saying is very effective! (Or dental fees these days are really so ex?)

Seriously, I lost my appetite. Luckily, I already finished my bowl of mee pok.

So much for my perfect morning......

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My point? Singaporeans are basically a rude bunch. Ok, we are not as bad as some other Asian countries..... but we are nowhere near being polite and gracious. Which brings me to my real point. The service industry sucks becoz the people providing the lousy services are also the same rude customers recieving it. It amuses me to see our media and press trying so hard to segregate the two.