Democracy at work

Next month two places which I am linked to will be holding elections to determine different matters.

Firstly there is the General Election in the United Kingdom on May 6th. This election has been anticipated for the past two years, with the Labour party losing its popularity. The Conservatives have overtaken Gordon Brown's government in the polls, lead by David Cameron. Yet last Thursday when the major party leaders had the first live TV debate in the nation's history, it was the third political party - the Liberal Democrats - with their leader Nick Clegg stealing the headlines and the votes by winning the contest. His performance was so good that the other two leaders David Cameron and Gordon Brown have acknowledged the Liberal Democrat leader as the victor of the TV debate and will be divert resources to tackling the Liberal Democrats. Early polls have shown the Liberal Democrats are now SECOND in the polls behind the Conservatives.

I just want to state my political leanings right here. Back in the mid to late nineties, I supported Labour. However when they become more business oriented and more centre with their enigmatic leader Tony Blair and also decided to support the Iraq war, I switched to the Liberal Democrats.

I am a lefty at heart. I want more rights for minorities such as homosexuals, ethnic minorities and people of lower social class. Gays and lesbians should have rights to form civil partnerships and have the same benefits as married couples. There should be more done to prevent racial and sexual discrimination in Britain. I do believe in taxing the rich more to help fund services and helping the poor. Even though I believe business should allowed to be run free, there should be a degree of regulation as businesses, especially the large companies, should be hold some civic responsibility to their employees, their customers and their investors when things go wrong. I think more should be done for the environment, by improving public transport and curbing carbon emissions.

I know some people will not agree with my opinion, but that is why we different political parties. This is why we have democracy, so people can exercise their right to vote. I always believe if you cannot show up to the voting booth on election, you cannot complain about the government afterwards even if you would or wouldn't have voted them in.

All I want for people to do is actually listen to the leaders policies and views, then decide for themselves who they want to vote for. Even if it isn't for the Liberal Democrats.
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The next election I am looking forward to is the Hong Kong Legislative Council by-election on May 16th. One Legislative Counsellor in each of the five geographical constituencies have resigned in an attempt to hold a referendum on the issue of universal suffrage.

Currently in Hong Kong we cannot elect our Chief Executive directly and only half of the seats in the Legislative Council are held by geographical constituencies. The other half are held by businesses and vocational sectors in the "Functional Constituencies". We have counsellors representing the medical and health sector, transportation sectors, etc.

I have many points I could argue about the faults of the Hong Kong political system but I'll my arguments to two main issues.

Firstly I do believe their should be a referendum on whether or not the people in Hong Kong should be able to directly vote in their Chief Executive. However resigning on mass to trigger a by-election and costing the taxpayers money is not the way it should be done. Even their aim, to have universal suffrage by 2012, is impossible. A more reasonable target is to directly vote in the Chief Executive by 2017.

Secondly I do hate the idea of functional constituencies. That means certain people, most notably professionals, can vote in two constituencies - one geographical and one functional. As a doctor living in Tai Po, I can vote in the New Territories East geographical constituency and the Medical functional constituency. For some people who are not professional, like cleaners and construction site workers, they can only vote in the geographical constituencies. This is deplorable on any nature. It means the more professional you are, the more influential you are during the voting system, which is unfair. I hope soon their scrap the functional constituencies which should be totally illegally under The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from the UN.

Self promotion

I used to like Jamie Oliver. When he first came on the scene with "The Naked Chef", he was young and vibrant. He didn't try to make poncy dishes like other chefs I had seen on TV. He genuinely seem like a lad a young girl wanted to take home to her parents. He got people who normally didn't like cooking to have an interest in food.

He was also very influential politically. When he made the TV program "Jamie's School Dinners", it really highlighted what was wrong with British children's school meals, being full of fat and carbohydrates and very little choice of fruit and vegetables. It got the government into putting more money into school dinners, because for children the school lunch is the one meal you can influence to get them to eat healthy. This achievement earned Jamie Oliver a lot of praise.

After that it started to go slightly downhill from there. He started to make himself too commercial and too over-exposed. I seem to see a Jamie Oliver TV program nearly every day on the Discovery Travel and Living channel we have on the extra channels we have. He seems to produce a cookbook every year and now he starting to produce a magazine called - wait for it - "Jamie". Enough is enough already!

There is a point where people tend to over expose themselves and the general public start to wonder if they are doing this for good intentions or they love themselves too much. The same could be applied for Jamie Oliver. I wish he spent more time in the kitchen making good dishes instead of producing so many TV programs. I wish he actually spent more time with his kids rather than tell us what we should be feeding our children.

There are times when I see celebrities at charity gigs and wonder if they are feeding their own ego rather feeling genuinely proud to be supporting this charity. These are the stars who name charities after themselves and only turn up to gigs when required, instead of participating in the running of the charity itself. If you are a celebrity and are taking a fee to be at a charity event/gig, I think that is so wrong. I remember I once heard in the local news in Hong Kong that one televised charity event just about broke even after they subtracted the celebrity performers' fees.

Charity should be its own reward. That is why I never mention to anyone if I do any charity work or how much I have donated to charities. There is no need to. It is OK if you are trying to drum up support for you sponsored run/walk/ride to publicize the event but if you are saying, "I don't XXXX amount of dollars to XXXX charity" then it defeats the point.

Everything in one place

We are a society who likes everything in one place. We all want everybody to use systems that everybody else uses. We all go to YouTube to view videos online, despite its restrictions on copyright and there are other video online websites who are not as stringent as YouTube. We all use Facebook to contact our friends. In the past we used to have Friends Reunited and MySpace but we have moved on to Facebook. Ninety percent of computer users use Windows as their operating system, not because they find the system useful but everybody else in the world uses it. They are more worried about compatibility rather than performance. In Hong Kong nearly everybody uses the Octopus card to pay for everything and I was introduced to a Facebook page petitioning for Hong Kong taxis to accept Octopus cards.

I don't really mind this. Everybody wants to have convenience in their lives. However there are some annoyances I find whenever I use this websites.

If you are going to post a video on YouTube or any other online video website, please check to make sure that the video hasn't been put up before. And don't try to get people to come and see your video by tagging it with every single word known to man. Every time I try search for a video I'm bombarded with videos with very inaccurate descriptions.

The same could be said for Facebook pages for celebrities/concepts. Please don't set up ludicrous groups saying you like sleeping or hate text speak. Don't establish a fan page for Miley Cyrus, even though there is an official page already set up next to the other seven unofficial fan pages.

The internet is starting to clog up with too much stuff. Please don't put more non-sensible stuff on the World Wide Web.

Inside the mind of a desperate guy

You can tell when you are desperate for companionship. You start to target every possible woman you encounter as a potential target. I hate the situation I'm in, doing this to people I like and work with. Yet once you get older and your options start to dwindle, your mind starts to wander into inappropriate avenues. I'm perpetuate the situation even more by writing this blog entry but hopefully it will be more therapeutic once I get it off my mind.

At work I'm restricted to nurses and doctors. I've met a few patients and patients' relatives who look quite nice. Yet I don't think it is appropriate if I contacted them, especially if I abuse my powers as a doctor by getting their contact details through the medical records or even worse after they have been grieving over the death of their father who I have been looking after. Most often my contact with patients or patients' relatives is a one-off encounter where no emotional bond is established.

Most of the nurses I have encountered are OK. There are several whom I have the pleasure to work whom I have considered very nice. These are the women who are honest, generous and charitable - the kind you want to marry. If circumstances were different, then maybe... I have met another lot of nurses who are cute, who have the 'girl-next-door' appeal to them. I have only met one nurse who I consider sexy and only after I've seen photos of her outside work. No, not those kind of pictures if you have a filthy mind. Actually photos of her in casual clothing and with make-up. Currently there is a nice student nurse where I'm working but I don't know anything about her and all my impressions of her is she has nice eyes, since the rest of her face is covered up with the obligatory face masks all medical staff have to wear. It could turn out she has a boyfriend (always the first item I think of to get me down), she is actually really ugly or she could be a real bitch.

Doctors are not that much better of an option. Most of the colleagues I have worked with are already hooked up, maybe a bit too young for me or we are just too different. Again I'm currently working with a nice female doctor who is cute but really I just want to have sex with her - that's all.

Next I'm potentially walking into a dangerous minefield by considering friends. I could ultimately destroy our friendship by going out with them but as I said before, I'm desperate. There's only one friend I would really contemplate. She's very generous, nice and clever. She could be a bit too conservative and too beautiful for me and she could already have a boyfriend. Also I'm too afraid of rejection and abject humiliation to ask them out. I've been also looking at friends of friends on Facebook but again, I'm too scared to approach.

So I'm approaching thirty, I've still a virgin which I shouldn't care about but it is damaging my fragile male ego, I don't go out much and I still live at home with my parents. Yes I'm going to be lonely for a long time.

Morality in sports - cheating and not the kind on the pitch

Last Saturday at around 12:43 p.m., everybody who was remotely interested in football was watching the events unfold at Stamford Bridge. It had been building to a climax when Wayne Bridge announced he would not be shaking John Terry's hand. Yet the moment passed and nothing really major happened.

For those not interested in football, let me wrap up the story for you. John Terry, Chelsea and England captain, was found to have sexual relationship with Vanessa Perroncel, the ex-partner of Wayne Bridge, another England footballer who used to play for Chelsea and now plays for Manchester City. John Terry went to court to prevent details of this relationship from being published but failed. Since this story has been announced, Wayne Bridge has decided for the sake of team unity that he will not be playing for England as long as John Terry was also considered, in effect ruling Bridge out of the World Cup that will be played this summer in South Africa. He also said he would not be shaking John Terry's hand prior to kick off when their teams met on Saturday in the Premier League.

It has long been known footballers' conduct is not the best in the world. Every football fan has read and heard stories of football players getting into fights at nightclubs, gambling away lots of money and of course sleeping with various young women. So what makes the John Terry story any different?

Firstly John Terry and Wayne Bridge were best friends, whilst playing for Chelsea and when they met up for the England squad. Even in the football world sleeping with your best friend's girlfriend is seriously frowned upon. Yet one could argue it wasn't an affair as Vanessa Perroncel and Wayne Bridge had split up just recently and were not even married, so there were no morality issues. Let us ask this question: Would you sleep with your best mate's ex-girlfriend, just after they broken up? Of course you wouldn't. At least you would wait a while and ask you best mate beforehand. At least you wouldn't have the sexual relationship in your best mate's house, is what happened between Vanessa Perroncel and John Terry. Neither was it an one-off affair, as Vanessan Perroncel and John Terry met several times over the next few months.

Once the affair ended, John Terry was worried the whole shenanigans would become public, thus ruining his reputation with his corporate sponsors and jeopardizing his marriage with Toni Poole. He sought a super injunction in the law courts to prevent the news story from being published but ultimately lost.

Since the whole incident has become public knowledge, all the participants have been affected.

For John Terry, he has lost the England captaincy. Even though he doesn't have any prominent individual sponsorship, he will be used less publicly by the corporates at Chelsea and England, in effect reducing his income. Several other women have stepped out and said they had sex with him whilst he has been married. This from a guy who was voted Dad of the Year in England last year. At least his missus Toni Poole has given him one last chance. Yet I know he will re-offend, since he has form before and during his marriage. I also point to Exhibit A - Ashley Cole - for any further proof footballers cannot keep their cock in their pants. More worryingly to Chelsea and England football fans is that his form has suffered since the whole affair kicked off and no doubt he will still suffer a torrent of abuse from England fans during the next England game against Egypt on Wednesday and beyond.

For Wayne Bridge he decided not to shake Terry's hand on Saturday and most notably will forfeit his place at this summer's World Cup for the sake of team unity, since many of the players have been divided over the whole affair. Bridge not going to the World Cup should have longer repercussions as he would most likely to have featured in the team, especially since Ashley Cole the first choice left back is now injured and is in serious danger of missing the World Cup. Now England have to rely on two young left backs who have very little international experience between them - Stephen Warnock and Leighton Baines.

For Vanessa Perroncel she has been keeping quiet over the whole incident, probably due to the alleged fact her silence has been bought by John Terry. However she did harp in on Wayne Bridge's decision not to go to the World Cup, saying he was making a mistake. I don't think she has any moral standpoint to start off on, especially if the stories are true she slept around with half the Chelsea team and only slept with Wayne Bridge because he was a prominent footballer with money. Right now she should keep quiet for the rest of her life, since she isn't coming out of this smelling like roses.

So should we care about this story? Should we care what footballers' do in their private lives, as long they can perform on the pitch? In one sense - No, it is their private lives and they can do what they want. In another sense - Yes, we pay their wages and they are used as role models for younger kids and footballers and should set an example. There is no right answer to this.

In related news Ashley Cole, another Chelsea footballer, was found to have had another string of affairs behind the back of his wife Cheryl Tweedy, who is a singer for the girl band Girls Aloud and who is also a judge on the UK talent show X-Factor. Thankfully Cheryl has now split up with Ashley. Ever since I knew of the first affair years ago, I knew this would happen and he would re-offend. Ever since he sodded off to Chelsea since he wasn't being paid the seventy thousand pounds per week he wanted instead of the fifty-five thousand pounds per week Arsenal Football Club were offering him from his previous thirty thousand pounds per week, I just knew he was a prick.

Let's just say I don't have sympathy for John Terry and Ashley Cole. They were lying cheat cocks to their wives and they don't deserve their love. I have more sympathy for Tiger Woods, for some strange reason. Golf needs Tiger Woods to come back and dominate the sport. At least Tiger Woods have more remorse, apologizing in public (even though that was really more for the sponsors he has) and gone to sex addiction clinic in a bid to clean up his act. Action speaks louder than words in this case.

Discriminatory against singles

I was rather glad Valentine's Day was on the first day of the Chinese New Year. At least I didn't get the full effect of this commercially capitalized day thrust into my face. I already feel miserable being single. I don't need to feel guilty about being single, like I committed a war crime.

Society does discriminate against single people or at least makes being single feel guilty and bad. Even earlier in life I noticed this. When I was living in the medical students residential halls the kitchen was filled with couples during dinner time making the meals for each other. You felt bad if you even just went into the kitchen, by disturbing the ethos surrounding these couples. You had to sneak in, do your stuff and sneak out like a ninja, hoping nobody remembered you for disrupting this couple's romantic life. It goes on into your later life, when posh restaurants and fellow diners snigger at your if you want a table for one. Sometimes I do want a decent meal without having to go to a fast food restaurant or ordering a takeaway.

Even governments are getting in on the act. They give incentives to people to get married or to have kids. Now I do really feel like a war criminal.

What I shouldn't do nowadays is log on to Facebook so often. I don't mind people announcing their engagement on their profile or post photos of their wedding or their kids on Facebook. I'll be happy for them. However I don't need daily updates with a million photos of their wedding or of their kids on Facebook. Just give me twenty of your best pictures and lets be done with it. I don't need constant reminders on my marital status, thank you.

Look there is nothing wrong with being single, if you choose that status. What is miserable for me is that it is not a choice but just a lack of options.

Cases from Casualty

I just returned from a week's attachment with psychiatry to return to my normal life in the Casualty department. Most of the time I just handling patients with trivial complaints, like flu/cold symptoms, food poisoning and minor sprains.

Sometimes I do groan when I see another kid come in just because he or she has had a fever for a few hours and it is not even that high. For those with you who have kids, your body's temperature should be below 37.3 degrees Celsius (I can't be bothered to figure what that is in Fahrenheit). Anything about 38.0 degress Celsius is what I constitute as a fever. The raising of the body temperature will not fry your kid's brain or any other organs in the body. Sometimes it will take a few days for the fever to go down. In 99% of cases it will be a trivial viral infection that just needs some medication for the ailments, plenty of rest and lots of fluids. You do not have to go and see the doctor at the first instance he or she has a fever. Try some anti-pyretics like Panadol/Tylenol and if that hasn't worked for a few days, then come see a doctor.

In Accident and Emergency I'm now on the front lines for the first time and having to diagnosis ailments. Before, I could rely on the Accident & Emergency doctors to have made a diagnosis if I was working in the wards or to have written a good referral letter if they are coming to the specialist out-patient clinic. Nowadays I have to determine what the patient has and do the appropriate management, most of the time without any supervision. So it is nice when I get a vital diagnosis right, which I will share.

Case 1
A 52 year old gentlemen with good past health presented to Casualty with per-rectal bleeding for half month, associated with a change in bowel habit, tenesmus (that's the sensation you want to take a poo but I can't), weight loss and mild abdominal discomfort. Whilst performing a per-rectal examination, there was a mass that could be palpable in the rectum. Naturally the patient was admitted to the Surgical ward. A flexible sigmoidoscopy and biopsy were performed the next day, showing he had cancer of the rectum. He was discharged a few days later to be further investigated for his cancer.

Case 2
A 29 year old lady with good past health presented to Casualty in mid-January for food poisoning features - abdominal pain, diarrhoea and vomiting. What was noted by me was her last menstrual period was late November 2009 - five weeks ago. I asked the nurse to perform a pregnancy test on her. It turned she was pregnant and didn't even know about it. An ultrasonogram was performed just to exclude ectopic pregnancy and she was referred to the Early Pregnancy Assessment Clinic.

Case 3
A 15 year old boy came to Casualty for six month history of cough and wanted to know why he was coughing so much. Turns out he's a chronic smoker!

What Casualty has taught me is that the general population is ignorant about their own health like I'm in finance. I know nothing about money and don't want to learn anything about economics and will ask stupid questions about it.

Something idiotic about football

Since I don't want to post two thought-provoking posts in quick succession, I decided to write about which players Fabio Capello might be looking at in the next two months in deciding who should go to the 2010 World Cup for England.

The team selection is not as concrete the last time I had an opportunity to look at the squad. Injuries and loss of form, especially at the back of team, makes the friendly against Egypt in March more likely to feature new faces.

Goalkeepers
Since David James is currently injured and doesn't look like being certain of the No. 1 jersey, other candidates such as Robert Green and Joe Hart have stepped up to the mike. Hart's recent form for Birmingham City has definitely been impressive, with the Brummies climbing up to the top eight and vying for Europa League spots. Paul Robinson is in the reckoning if James doesn't recover or doesn't haggle a move to Stoke or Tottenham during this transfer window. Also look for Ben Foster angling for a loan move to get some needed first team action. At the moment it looks like Green, Hart and Robinson are going to be called up against Egypt.

Defenders
With Wes Brown and Rio Ferdinand perennially injured, Glen Johnson, Wayne Bridge and Joleon Lescott recently crocked and out of form, Capello needs to dig deep into his reserves. Micah Richards looks in line for a call up at right back and if Johnson doesn't recover soon, Capello might have to look further. Tony Hibbert for Everton is out injured, otherwise he may have been given a thought whilst Luke Young has retired and Gary Neville is passed his best form. After those players it looks like scraping the barrel, with Tyrone Mears, Andy Wilkinson, Phil Bardsley and Richard Stearman. It looks slightly rosier at the left back position with Ashley Cole and Stephen Warnock still fit. Leighton Baines could also be called upon if needed. With John Terry likely to partner Matthew Upson if Ferdinand remains on the sidelines, Capello might want to give Gary Cahill a debut as he is increasingly likely to go and hopes for Phil Jaglieka to come back from injury. Don't be surprised if Roger Johnson, Scott Dann, Ryan Shawcross or Michael Dawson gets a call up in the March friendly against Egypt if Lescott and Ferdinand don't recover. For March it looks like Johnson, Richards, Brown, Terry, Ferdinand, Upson, Lescott, Cahill, Cole, Bridge and Warnock to be called up but considering half of these defenders are injured or out of form, you could see other names as well.

Midfielders
With Aaron Lennon injured it might be the time for David Beckham, Shaun Wright-Phillips or even Theo Walcott to shine. Also it seems likely Owen Hargreaves is less likely to play football ever again so England will be forced to bring Michael Carrick (shudder). On a slightly more positive note is the form of James Milner in the centre of the park with Ashley Young and Stewart Downing doing well on the wings for Aston Villa, putting them back in the international fold. It may be the Gooner in me but I can't see Tom Huddlestone or Jermaine Jenas getting into the England squad since they don't offer anything defensively or offensively. So see the likes of Beckham, Lennon (if fit), Wright-Phillips, Walcott, Milner, Barry, Lampard, Gerrard (if fit), Carrick, Young and Downing in the squad come March.

Forwards
I still expect Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey to lead the line but the likes of Jermaine Defoe losing form and Carlton Cole being injured leaves the space open for Peter Crouch, Darren Bent and Gabriel Agbonlahor. All six of these strikers could make the selection in six weeks' time.

As the last three months has shown, the loss of form and injuries could allow anybody in. I think the player to look out for in the next few months will be Milner, who has shown adaptability in playing different positions and shown good form.

Fuel economy

I've been quite busy recently, so I haven't had time to post. In the past few weeks, my time at Accident and Emergency has been hectic and occupying. Most of my free time has been thinking about how lonely I am. Even when I'm asleep, my dreams are constant reminders I want sex and love (not necessarily in that order). I wish I could do something about it but I'm too shy and cowardly to do so.

For this blog post I'm not going to whinge about the lack of companionship but fuel economy. As most of you know I bought a new car a few months ago - a Volkswagen Golf TSI. It's a basic car but I love it. However I noticed it is a constant drain on financial resources. I have to pay for the license, car insurance, toll fares and most of all petrol (or gasoline for those American savvy readers). I know I cannot alter how much I spend on the first few things but at least I can control how much petrol I use.

As most of you reading know I'm a fan of the BBC TV programme "Top Gear". Although they portray themselves as motor loving enthusiasts who care nothing about the environment, they have produce a few clips about fuel economy. There was the clip a few years ago when Jeremy Clarkson went from London to Edinburgh and back, a journey of 800 miles, on a single tank of diesel in a Audi A8. Just two years ago there was a clip showing a BMW M3 could be as fuel efficient as a Toyota Prius, depending how you drive it. And only a couple of series ago the presenters went from Basel to Blackpool on a single tank of fuel.

I know they were using diesel cars and they had the time to do these challenges but what they did offer a lot of top tips. Most of these tips can be found here as well. I experimented myself with the drive from home in Hong Lok Yuen, Tai Po to the hospital. The average time of my trip is 30 minutes. If I drive really fast, for example late at night when the roads are clear and there isn't much traffic about, I take 27 minutes. If I drive fuel efficiently, such as slower acceleration and much smoother braking, it only takes me 33 minutes. At most it takes six minutes more to get to work. Most of the time I do set off early and there hasn't been many traffic accidents on my way to work.

For once Jeremy Clarkson is right. Even though car manufacturers should be doing more to make motor vehicles more efficient, fuel economy is in the hands (or feet) of the drivers and we can do more by not just the choice of our cars but how we drive.

"I'm so ronery..."

I haven't blogged for quite a while. Quite a lot of activity has been happening in my life. My brother is back from UK for a holiday and I recently ended my surgical rotation. I'm currently in my A&E / ER / Casualty rotation, whatever you like to call it. I'll write about my experience so far at a later date. Now I have to spend my day off figuring out how to pay tax and updating my family medicine logbook.

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I recently met up with my supervising family medicine mentor. She explained to me that being in family medicine can be lonely at times, having to rotate through different specialties for short periods of time and not being around other family medicine residents. I told her that was fine with me, as being a loner was something new to me. Being in England by myself in a predominantly English environment and being in Hong Kong in a vastly Chinese culture having being brought up in a Western background has left me with enough experience to be on my own.

When I said that to my mentor, I knew it would sound awkward to some people that you don't mind being alone. I have few close friends and even then I don't engage with them that often. Or is it the other way around, that they don't engage with me that often? I can never tell the difference. I just find I'm rubbish around people. I'm really a bore when it comes to conversation because I have nothing to say - my life is pretty dull and I don't have any remarkable stories to tell. Also I can never engage in petty chit-chat or gossip. I don't really care who goes out with who and who is stabbing who's back. I don't care in the first place and I don't really give a shit when it is said.



When I want to go out, it is usually by myself. I go to the cinema by myself, I go shopping (which is very rarely) by myself and I go to the golf driving range by myself. I want to spend my time how I see fit and going out with other people means being accommodating to them as well. If it is friends, that is fine but when it is colleagues or other people it can be quite boring since they talk about matters which you don't find not a slight bit interesting. I do find doctors very boring to talk to since they talk endlessly about work.

I remember when I was in secondary school, I attended the Sixth Form scholars' dinner with the headmaster and his wife. Mrs. Seldon commentated that being a scholar can often be a lonely existence. I find that true with being different to everybody else. The more different or far from normal you are, the more likely you are going to spend time alone. It is just something you have to get use to.

Keeping secrets

I don't try to hide the fact I have depression, which lead to two repeated years plus two deferred years when I was studying medicine. I don't feel ashamed I took longer than everybody else to get a medical degree. I knew I had problems and it wasn't entirely my fault.

Yet there are times I "bend" the truth. I don't exactly lie but the entire truth is not exactly revealed. The best example is when asked about my background. Due to my deep accent, I'm always asked my fellow staff about my upbringing. I always say I was born in Hong Kong but grew up in England. So there is nothing wrong there.

Yet there is always questions about duration and such. I'm always asked how long I have been back in Hong Kong. The real answer is ten years - five years of my medical degree plus the extra four years entailed plus my intern year. What most people expect the answer to be is six years - five years for the medical studies plus one year internship. So I never ever say an exact number. I always state I have been back for my university studies and have been so ever since. Not exactly the whole truth but not exactly a fib either.

So why do I "bend" the truth? Why don't I just admit to the fact I spent more time than anybody else to get a medical degree, just because of my depression? The fact is I got sick of explaining my life story every time this possibility crops up. Me explaining my life and my depression becomes like that game "Twenty Questions" when people try to narrow down the truth. At the end of the day I just want to simplify matters.

Occasionally I do have to get a sick leave when I go for my follow-up appointments. Then some parts of the truth do creep out. I'm always asked where have I been when I go to my psychiatrist. I usually say I just have to follow-up with my doctor and hope the questioning ends there but it never does. This leads to the inevitable question, "What are you being followed-up for?" which leads to me say, "Depression" and the barrage of questions afterwards.

I understand some people who keep secrets. It makes life a little more simple. Now I have some kind of understanding what schizophrenics and homosexuals go through. I would never say my predicament is exactly as does who are persecuted like gays and lesbian but some people expect you to conform the normal standards and if you have a deviance, you are most likely to keep it in check even if most people are willing to accept it.

Increasing levels of bureaucracy

Having requested my holiday leave* at the end of my rotation, I have finally finished surgery and will be going on to accident and emergency next month.

* I can never call my holiday leave "annual leave" as I get the leave four times a year. It can only be called annual leave if I can bunch up all my leave into one massive holiday, where I probably go back to England.

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I've only just left a surgery department where they recently opened another ward. This means another twenty six beds available and more opportunities for patients to receive treatment and surgery. This maybe good for the nearby population but does not bode well for junior doctors. We do not receive an increase in manpower, meaning an increase workload. I'm not complaining, having already left the department already.

This is just one of several examples of the increase level of bureaucracy in hospital work. It has been steadily creeping into the workplace. It comes with the organization you work with. The larger the organization, the more paperwork and guidelines you must follow and there is no bigger organization than a government installation. In recent months I have noticed how anal some people who set out these guidelines really are.

The first example I encountered was writing management orders for intravenous fluids. In the past I could just write what intravenous fluids I want for my patients in the management orders sheet. If the intravenous fluids contained potassium, I would have to write it on the drug sheet, which is fair enough since overdosing on potassium is very dangerous. For some reason, this policy was changed so I have to write ALL intravenous fluids into the drug sheet, whether or not it contained potassium or not. Also I have to write the frequency more explicitly. In the past I could write "2D1S Q8H" which means "two units of dextrose 5% and one unit of sodium chloride 0.9% every eight hours". Now I have to write "2D1S Q8H per unit/pint*" which means a few more seconds. If you are writing this for every week for every patient, the amount of time spent doing this starts to build up.

*Whoever writes "per pint" for intravenous fluids or even blood products is wrong. A pint is 565 ml, whilst an unit of intravenous fluids is always 500 ml, whilst for blood products it is usually 330 ml. Just being pedantic.

Another example of bureaucracy I have just encountered is blood taking. In the past we had to use a barcode system to print labels for blood specimens if we want to type and screen a patient. For those of you who don't know what that means, it basically means knowing a patient's blood group so we can give blood just in case. We had to use an electronic device to make sure the patient's identity was correct. It's quite similar to the mobile phone 2D barcode system you see. It would be fine if it was just for blood typing but now we have to use it for EVERY specimen, whether it is blood, sputum or urine. It is so annoying and so cumbersome and so time-wasting! At the end of the day, we want to avoid mixing up the patient's identity with somebody else but the specimen taking is still being done by a human and the placing of the label is still done by a human, which means it is prone to error. Putting another level of checking may reduce this type of human error but at what cost?

Bureaucracy is fine but there is a limit as far it can go.

Snapper happy

Yesterday I was at a friend's wedding. I only went to the ceremony because my friend was kind enough to invite me and I thought it would be impolite to turn the invitation down. I don't like weddings as I have stated in a previous entry. One of the aspects I don't like about how snapper happy everybody is with their cameras. I know the wedding day is a memorable event in anybody's lives and they want to record the moment so they can remember the occasion at a later date. That is why you employ a professional photographer to perform the task. For everybody else there really is no excuse.

If you are taking a few photos that is fine, I'll accept that. But if you are spending more time taking photographs instead of enjoying the occasion, you have really missed the point. Why take so many pictures and then when you come back to look at the them later, you cannot remember the occasion? Just try to enjoy the occasion and probably take a few pictures just to jog the memory later.

I really do blame digital technology for this. With the advent of the digital camera, people don't have to worry about wasting film or precious space. In fact they might as well keep their index finger on the snapper button. Another regard in which technology have seriously affected picture taking is having photo albums. In years gone by, we used to actually take out photo albums from cupboards or drawers and sat down with friends or families to flick through the pages and look at pictures of occasions such as birthday parties and weddings. Instead people just stored them on their computers, never looking at them again. That was the reason why I bought a digital photo frame for my parents, to get them to display the pictures they take of our dogs and the photos they take on holiday.

When people do put digital photos up on online albums, they never ever sort them out. They tend to download every single photo, meaning their album contains about a few hundred pictures. I remember lining up after the wedding ceremony yesterday to get some food, only to be held up by some guy who was taking several photos of the shao mei they were serving! I would understand if the food concerned was something rare, such as caviar or truffles but dim sum? And it wasn't one photo, it was three or four. I bet he would store them on his hard drive and download every single snapshot to his Facebook page.

I also despise having to pose for pictures. I just find it unnatural, having to stand their staring at the camera and smile like a Cheshire cat. It really doesn't capture the occasion. I always like taking candid photos rather than getting somebody to stop what they doing. Also you can get to do more witty comments on the photo as people tend to be more animated and doing several poses.

I took my camera yesterday but I left the camera in my car, which I rather glad I did because it spared me being sucked into being the rest of the congregation.

Depression and tragedy

I know many of you who read this do not have an interest in football. However the apparent suicide of German goalkeeper Robert Enke may have passed your radar screens. My heart goes out to his wife and his child.

It is a tragedy when anybody dies. For me it is even more of a tragedy when somebody dies due to a suicide from depression. This story reminds me of another German footballer, Sebastien Deisler, who quite the game at a young age due to depression.

I'm often angered by some people who think rich people and intellectual people such as sportspeople and doctors are immune to diseases such as depression and anxiety. They think money and success can buy you happiness or that you can 'think' your way out of a crisis such as feeling sad and panicky.

Just remember, depression can affect anybody. Nobody, no matter how successful they are, can escape from it

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I often wonder why some of my female friends are still single after all this time. Love is a consider source of bewilderment for me, probably due to the illogicality of it. I know at least three female doctor friends who are beautiful, intelligent and generous and as far as I know are sans boyfriend. Perhaps they do have a partner I know nothing about.

Before you ask, I have consider asking at least two of them out for a date. I am that desperate to even consider asking a friend out but I just have too much respect for my friends, I am such a coward and I genuinely fear the rejection that may come.

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I think Fabio Capello has missed a trick by only scheduling two friendlies between now and the next World Cup. With several first team players out injured, he needs to give deputies the chance to try out their skills on the world stage. The likes of Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey are out injured. England need to give the likes of Wes Brown, Gary Cahill, Stephen Warnock and Tom Huddlestone more chances to play, even if it is for only 30 to 45 minutes.

Celebrity crushes

Like every heterosexual male, I probably have a crush on many a celebrity. However my type of fascination has diverted from having sex with them to possibly being their boyfriend. In that respects my criteria for liking a celebrity changes. They have to be close to my age, so people like Emma Watson are out. They also have to have similar intelligence to me and I would like deep conversations, so glamour models tend to be out unless I can proved wrong. With this said my criteria have lead to these ladies being my celebrity crushes

Julia Stiles She's not your typical Hollywood actress as she has tried her hand in all kinds of genres, from comedy to drama to action, and also dabbled in theatre. She's beautiful and has that great deep slightly husky voice I love. What really got it for is she temporarily took a break from acting to do a degree in English from Yale.

Holly Walsh What I really want in a woman is a good sense of humour. Nobody understand my sense of humour - the dry sarcasm and seething irony. I've seen and heard Holly Walsh in "8 Out of 10 Cats", "Edinburgh and Beyond", "Mock the Week", "The Now Show" and "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" and think she gorgeous. I would like her with longer hair but I can't have everything (or anything for this matter).

Tomoko Kojima You are probably wonder "Who?". Tomoko Kojima is a cheerleader for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has been for the past six years. What I like about her, apart from being gorgeous and fit, is that she went to a foreign country to fulfill her dream of being a cheerleader. I could have picked any other cheerleader like Amber Lancaster or Renee Herrlocker but Tomoko is Japanese (I love Japanese girls) and can speak English, which has ruled out all other Japanese models/idols.

Priscilla Ng Probably a bit too close to home, Priscilla Ng is a reporter for my local TV channel TVB Pearl. Not only is she beautiful but I think she gets a bad end of a deal at TVB. I think she is there for a little eye candy, which has been epidemic in Hong Kong news channels. She also has to present the weather and the late news as well. I know I have no chance with her, even if she was single but I think she does an excellent job.

Superstition

I'm suppose to be getting my new car next week but there is a delay. Namely my parents are not happy with the license plate I've got. The people at Volkswagen have randomly assigned a license plate number - NZ 6421. For most readers they will see nothing wrong with that. However if you reverse the numbers, you'll get the sequence "124" which in Cantonese sounds like "easy to die". Because my parents are superstitious, they are getting me a personalized license plate. I don't know if that is even worse or better - believing Chinese numerology or spending HK$3000 for a personalized license plate.

I'm not one for superstitions. I don't mind walking underneath ladders. I don't touch wood when saying something bad might happen. I do say "bless you" more out of politeness other than being scared of somebody's soul escaping their body. In this day and age where logic has now reigned, I'm surprised superstitions still have a place in modern times.

Look I don't mind have rituals you perform when doing something but if you believe these acts change your fate, perhaps you should stop reading astrology in the newspapers.

Assignment of blame

Recently the Hospital Authority (the Hong Kong equivalent of the NHS) decided to make major medical incidents public, such as the mixing up of patients' identities and the incorrect distribution of medication. I would expect the general public are horrified such mistakes still continue and will demand to know who is responsible. Not a week goes by without me hearing on the evening news of another "medical incident". People might think the number of incidents has gone up whilst hearing the news but to be honest the number of incidents reported in the news has increase only and the actual number of medical events has remained static. Nevertheless there is always the promise of a full enquiry to find who is responsible.

Yet some times even if somebody is to blame, then what? I hate to state this and this is only my personal opinion and not the opinion of doctors or the Hospital Authority - mistakes will happen. The public health system is run by humans and we humans are fallible to the odd error. We can put in more stringent measures and add more layers of bureaucracy to ensure such mistakes never happen in the future. However the efficiency of the system will dramatically decrease as doctors and nurses will spend more time filling in paperwork rather than doing their job.

In this age of increasing information at our fingertips and with high efficiency of bureaucracy, everybody thinks it will be easy to find out who is to blame. When we are angry or have lost something dear to us, we all want somebody accountable for their actions. Yet sometimes there is nobody to blame. Sometimes it is down to fate and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. We do live in a world where chaos reigns and we are governed not just by the laws of physics and human behaviour but also to random chance.

In other words, things happen because they happen.

That is why I want to stick up for politicians like Gordon Brown. People blame Gordon Brown for the state Great Britain is in but it is not his fault the economy collapse - blame the bankers, especially the ones in USA. Also there was a lot of anger when Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the first time people have been angry when somebody good has won a prize. If you want to blame somebody, shout at the Norwegian Nobel Committee for making such an unusual decision.

Years ago, I used to get angry at everything and everyone about the state I was in. Now I just learn to accept the fate I have been given with and try to alter it myself.

Fads and trends part 2

To continue my previous post about fads and trends, there are certain number of fashions which I find ridiculous to exist and even more ludicrous that anybody follows them.

1. The iPhone phenomenon

It first began with the iPod and now the latest must-have gadget is the iPhone. People are constantly taking it out in front of friends and fiddling with the poxy thing. Probably half of the people I know own iPhones and I always see them updating their Facebook status with them.


I don't see why people have to use them all the time. I don't feel the need to be constantly in contact with the internet. Anything that comes up on the internet that I urgently need; such as emails, can usually wait until I get home. It cost a ridiculous amount to buy and with restricted service plan that seems to be provided in every country in the world, it adds more charges to your wallet. People tend to forget that there are similar phones out there, including the HTC and the Google phone that has just come out. Some of these have better functions over the iPhone. People really need to shop around.

With that said, I do feel guilty when I get out my iPod Touch. It looks similar to an iPhone, only thinner. It has the same capabilities, apart from the phone and camera functions. I do constantly fiddle with my iPod Touch but I find it a good device to replace my previous mp3 player and it has good games on it to occupy me when I am on-call or travelling on public transport. Plus the fact it came free with my MacBook Pro is an added advantage, which leads me on to the next fad I hate.


2. Being a slave to Microsoft Windows


Around 90% of people use Microsoft Windows. People always encounter problems with Windows, but never think of doing something about it. Firstly they can change the operating system. Linux and Mac OS are far superior operating systems which can be adapted to easily. They also have the added advantage of never suffering from attacks from viruses, trojan horses or worms.

I have had my MacBook Pro for about three months. Apart from a few minor slow downs and some adapatation, I don't have any problems with working on Mac OS X. I'm rather glad I switched to Apple since it is much faster and much more user friendly. Heck is so much faster on startup, I stopped switching my laptop on and going to the toilet as I used to with my old laptop since it took so bloody long to load up.

I think people only use Windows because everybody else uses it. They fear the incompatibility, especially when they need to present a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation or require reading a Microsoft Word document. People tend to forget that there is a Microsoft Office for Mac. Even though it is adequate, there are still some compatibility issues (due to Microsoft, not due to Apple). I'm rather glad I freed myself of the Microsoft dependency and want to avoid giving Bill Gates anymore money in the future.

3. The Mini Cooper

The Mini Cooper, when it came out at the beginning of the millenium, used to be cool. It was a great modern reinvention of a classic. However it has gradually become uncool over the years because just too many people have bought it. There are so many good cars out there.

The same idea applies to anybody who buys a Mercedes/BMW/Lexus, just because it is an expensive car. I hate those people who use the car as an image status rather than a fine piece of automotive engineering. These are the people who constantly buy the newest car, changing their vehicle every two years. Thankfully there is an upside to this - it allows us less mortals to buy good reasonably new cars at affordable prices.

4. Glory supporters

These are bandwagon jumpers who tend to support any footbal team that is successful. They tend to switch allegiances faster than Katie Price can publish an autobiography. In recent years these so called football fans switch from Chelsea to Manchester United to Barcelona to Real Madrid. They say they are fans of football but true football fans stick with their team thick or thin.

At first I'm guilty of being a glory supporter. I first started supporting Arsenal in 1990-1991 because they won the title that season. I have no local affinity to the club, having never lived in the Highbury area. Since then I have supported Arsenal even through the bleak black years in the mid-nineties, when George Graham was involved in the bung scandal, when Nayim was lucky to lob David Seaman in the 1996 Cup Winners' Cup final and in the past few years when we haven't won a trophy in four years. But I'm still supporting Arsenal, because they are my club.

Other fads and trends I hate
- Switching your mobile phone every two years to the 'latest' model when you clearly don't use 90% of the functions on the phone.
- Wearing designer clothes because they're designer clothes.
- Playing also those Facebook applications when real life beckons.

Please don't turn to sheep - be a lion instead.

Fads and trends part 1

I just saw the most appalling news today. For those who know me, I used to be very enthusiastic about films and the movie industry, being quite up-to-date with the upcoming releases. However I was very surprised and shocked to hear "Fame", one of the most iconic films of all time, had been remade and will be out for release soon.

Some part inside of me wept loudly because it died. Over the summer I saw the remake of "The Taking of Pelham 123", another classic movie, released with big names headlining the thriller. The remake of classics has just proven two things to me.

Firstly Hollywood has finally run out of ideas and are just remaking old films. There was once a rumour, which was featured in "The Island", that there are only thirteen real stories with different variations being made by the studios in Hollywood. I don't think that is true. In the 1970s, Hollywood was making original stuff like Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Nowadays nearly every movie is linked to a true story, a book or some other form of media. It is obvious each film must have some angle so people are enticed to come and see it. I initially thought "Wanted" was an original film, only to find out it was adapted from a graphic novel/comic leaving me very disappointed. There are enough good ideas and writers out there to make original films. Hollywood, just give these ideas and writers a chance.

Secondly the current youth are just far too lazy to watch something "old", no matter how good it is. I seriously challenge anybody to go out and watch the original "Fame" or "The Taking of Pelham 123". Those are very good films which don't need to be remade. The youth of today just want to see anything that is new and trendy, rather than go back to the classics. I hate it when people don't watch movies or listen to music just because it is old. I still listen to the vast majority of my music, even if it is more than ten years old like Blur or The Beatles. The quality of the music hasn't deteriorated, so what is the problem?

Please Hollywood, whatever your do please don't remake anymore classics. If they start to remake movie such as "The Godfather" or "Apocalypse Now", I think I'm going to the mountains to live as a hermit.

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Speaking about being new and trendy, quite a number of people I know own iPhones. I always wondered whether they bought an iPhone because it is a good device, has great functions and applications, or just because everybody else has bought one. I know a friend's sister only bought the new iPhone 3GS just because "it has a white back cover". Don't people know there are other phone/PDA hybrids out there, like the HTC or the new Google phone?

There are other trends and fads out there which I don't understand. People have to understand there are other options out there and they don't need to be like sheep, following the crowd. Please don't buy something or follow something just because everybody else does. I always use this analogy whenever somebody says, "everybody else is doing it" - if everybody was throwing themselves off the tallest building, would you too?

Next time I will write about what fads and trends I hate, except for the iPhone trend which I just mentioned. This ranges from cars to football teams.

England's World Cup squad

The website Football 365 has a very good article about which players should be in England's World Cup squad for South Africa 2010. Although I generally agree with the article overall, I don't think the selection criteria should be in the form of a ladder. I think most coaches when picking a squad will select by position rather than the quality of their players. So here is my view of who might be going.

Goalkeeper (number of places: 3)
On the plane: David James, Robert Green
In contention: Ben Foster, Paul Robinson, Joe Hart
Only if swine flu breaks out: Chris Kirkland, Scott Carson

David James, despite playing for the English Premier League's bottom club Portsmouth, is still the best English goalkeeper by a mile. His absence has proven this point. The only problem is will Capello continue to pick him if Portsmouth still play as they are. With James's absence, Green has been deputizing admirably and seem to be the second choice.

The third goalkeeper spot is up for grabs. At the moment Ben Foster is taking his chances. Much will depend when Edwin van der Saar comes back to takes his place in the Manchester United goal with Ben Foster reverting back to benchwarmer. Paul Robinson brings experience but I think his England days are past him. It might be better to bring a young pair of hands to get the experience.

Right-back (2)
On the plane: Glen Johnson,
In contention: Wes Brown, Micah Richards
Only if swine flu breaks out: Luke Young, Gary Neville

Although his defending capabilities will be exposed against better opposition, Glen Johnson is currently England's top right-back. He has the ability to go forward and deliver crosses. With that in mind, the back-up will probably be a bit more defensive minded. This is probably why I put Brown ahead of Richards. Both are capable of playing in the centre of defence as well, which will bode well for Capello as he might not take four specialist centre-backs, but Brown has better defending qualities and big match experience compared to Richards. The only problem for Brown is that he is not playing regularly for Manchester United. Yet Gary Neville was called up to the England squad over the summer despite playing very few matches for his club, so Brown still has some hope.

Left-back (2)
On the plane: Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge
In contention: Leighton Baines, Stephen Warnock
Only if swine flu breaks out: Nicky Shorey, Paul Konchesky

Probably the most secure and undramatic position in the England squad. Cole and Bridge have been the mainstay left sided defenders since the beginning of this millenium. Although the likes of Shorey have gained a couple of caps in their absence, it will be definitely those two on the plane to South Africa this summer.

Centre-back (3-4)
On the plane: Rio Ferdinand, John Terry
In contention: Matthew Upson, Joleon Lescott
Only if swine flu breaks out: Phil Jaglieka, Gary Cahill, Curtis Davies

Rio Ferdinand and John Terry will definitely be starting for England during the World Cup but the most definite issue is who will be deputizing for them. In recent games when one or the other has been out injured, Matthew Upson has been filling their boots. Yet he is not world class. Joleon Lescott is the only other real contender but he has floundered when put in an England shirt. With England having already qualified for the World Cup, Capello might want to use the two remaining qualifying games as a chance to see Lescott and Upson under real pressure. Cahill & Davies have been called up but I don't think Capello will be bringing uncapped centre-backs to play against the likes of Brazil and Spain. Jaglieka is currently injured but has shown he is capable of playing in the big leagues and his versatility will also prove to be an useful asset.

Right-midfield (2)
On the plane:
In contention: Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott, David Beckham, James Milner, Shaun Wright-Phillips
Only if swine flu breaks out: Leon Osman, David Bentley

Probably the most open position to be filled by Fabio Capello. No player is a definite in this position. Currently with his league form and recent displays for England, Aaron Lennon will be filling the right of midfield. Theo Walcott has been played the most as right winger by Capello plus he can pushed further upfield if required. Milner has the ability to play across the whole midfield and up front. Beckham has been a great impact substitute for England in the past year and can play in the centre is the dubbed "quarterback" role if required. This is why SWP is so low down in the thinking. Although he is a good player, can Capello afford to bring a specialist right winger who isn't that world class?

Left midfield (2)
On the plane:
In contention: Ashley Young
Only if swine flu breaks out: Stewart Downing, Joe Cole, Matthew Taylor

With Steven Gerrard starting on the left and Milner deputizing, I doubt anybody can push their way through to be on the plane bound for South Africa. Ashley Young has to have an outstanding season to even be considered for the squad. The likes of Downing and Cole have to get of the treatment table and on to the field before even thinking about World Cup places

Centre midfield (4-5)
On the plane: Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry
In contention: Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick
Only if swine flu breaks out: Scott Parker, Jermaine Jenas

With Gerrard, Lampard & Barry dead cert on going to South Africa, only one or two places are really up for contention. Even though Gerrard will most likely be playing on the left and free up a spot, I think Beckham will be picked as a third right midfielder to cover both right and centre midfield. Currently Michael Carrick is filling the spot but I don't think he will be testing the likes of Argentina and Holland. Capello will be hoping Hargreaves can get fit soon and have a decent season for Manchester United, as his defensive prowess, passing ability and versatility makes the most ideal holding midfielder, even better than Barry. I don't think Capello will bring three holding midfielders in the likes of Barry, Hargreaves or Carrick as he will want to leave the fifth centre-midfielder (if takes that many) to be more attacking.

Forwards (4-5)
On the plane: Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey, Jermaine Defoe
In contention: Carlton Cole, Peter Crouch
Only if swine flu breaks out: Gabriel Agbonlahor, Darren Bent, Dean Ashton

It is most like Rooney and Heskey will start with Defoe coming off the bench. This leaves one more big striker to fill the post. Currently it is a straight fight between Cole and Crouch with the West Ham United player having the edge. Although Crouch is reasonable in the air, he likes the ball at his feet unlike Carlton Cole who can be a target man just like Heskey.

Current prediction
Goalkeeper: James, Green, Foster
Right back: Johnson, Brown
Left back: A. Cole, Bridge
Centre back: Terry, Ferdinand, Upson
Right midfield: Lennon, Walcott
Centre midfield: Lampard, Barry, Beckham, Hargreaves*
Left midfield: Gerrard, Milner, Young
Forward: Rooney, Heskey, Defoe, C. Cole

* If fit, otherwise Carrick
On standby: Robinson, Richards, Carrick, Crouch

Hypocrisy maybe the word

I know my Cantonese is very poor. Not being able to read or write is, at times, a matter of shame being Chinese. Yet I manage to get by in normal day life. The only problem or piece of humiliation is when I have to order dishes in a restaurant, leading me to dine at establishments with pictures of their dishes in their menus or where the menus are in English. I do get a lot of grief from people around me, especially nurses, who tell me to learn Cantonese properly so I can advance my career. Doctors are a little bit more sympathetic and patients find it amusing. A lot of people, especially nurses, tend to correct me about my pronunciation or grammar.

With that said, I don't even attempt to correct people's use of English, even though I might have a standpoint since English is my first language. I hate it when Chinese people always say "Thank you 你", which literally translates as "Thank you you". I cringe when people say words wrong such as "mechanism". I tend to believe the quality of English used nowadays have deteriorated, thanks to the Internet, text messaging, online chatting and emails.

I don't think anybody has a deserved right to criticise anybody else on any matter. The only position where somebody can comment on somebody else's action or words is if they themselves are experts in that area or have experience in the field. I don't like it when sports commentators or journalists criticise athletes or players on their performance. It is OK when you are a former player criticising a player about the sins of diving, since you know what it is like to play against cheats.

I never say to patients, "I know how you feel" even though I have been a patient. It is their body I have no idea what they are going through. I do hate it when my doctor friends say, "I know what you are going through. I have been through psychiatry..." I really want to say at that point, "If you know how to drive, do you know how to drive a racing car or know what Michael Schumacher is going through when he drives that Ferrari F1 car?" No of course you don't. It is just better to say, "I'm sure what your going through is difficulty..."

Recently I have been suffering from hypocrisy from my parents recently. I tend to be on the internet a lot, mainly gawking at babes. I have been told by my parents to cut down on this. With this said, most of the time my mum and dad spends on the internet using Facebook applications, such as a farming game and mahjong. I find it hard to take their advice of cutting my use of the internet when they spend most of their time on the internet as well.

It is so much easier to criticise when you have somewhere to stand from.

Single and desperate

I was going to write an article about fads and stereotypes but lately something else has been on my mind. I'm going to whine about the lack of my love life again. If you are not interested in reading yet again about the absence of romance in my existence, please go somewhere else...

Still here? Then let's begin...

I use Facebook far too often. Unlike other people who seem to use this social networking site for means other than social networking, such as playing those blasted applications involving mahjong or planting crops, I actually follow how my friends are getting along in their lives. I always feel left behind when I compared my life to my friends and colleagues. Not a day goes by when I see another person I know putting his or her pre-wedding photos up and I have to fake some congraulatulations for them, when most of all I feel envy and depression. Other people are announcing they are pregnant and others are stating they have broken up.

And what am I doing? My state is similar when I rub my shoes against the carpet - I'm static. I'm in the same state I was ten years ago, just fatter and actually have a job. I'm twenty eight years old, never had a girlfriend and I'm still a virgin, which irks my fragile male ego. I hate to use a feminine phrase but my biological clock is ticking. I thought by this age I would be married but now I don't feel my chances of meeting somebody are getting better.

I work most of the time and spend most of my free time at home. I don't like going out that much, since I hate the social life in Hong Kong. I have reduced the amount of alcohol I drink. All this significantly reduces the chances of meeting somebody. My hobbies are not great ways of socializing either. I spend most of my time cooking at home and I like to watch movies by myself, either at home or in the cinema. I don't go to exercise much and most of my keeping fit, if I'm actually bothered, is cycling (again which I do on my own) or going to the driving range - something which I do on my own and not really a sport which women engage in.

I could look to my circle of friends but most of my friends are doctors and I don't really want to hook with somebody in the same field. No offense to all my doctor friends but most of us are quite boring. I would like somebody who can talk about something other than their patients or the latest advancements in the medical field. That also rules out nurses, no matter how cute or sexy they are.

What also limits my options are my criteria. I do have very selective needs as such. I would like to meet somebody who has a similar background to me (Western upbringing, broad views) but in Hong Kong, meeting somebody like that is very difficulty. With most people having a Cantonese background, finding a lady I like is similar to sieving for gold in a river.

I'm starting to get desperate now. I'm rating all the women I meet into categories. I've started signing up to online dating sites. I'm contemplating starting to do some exercise, not for my health but in the hopes of meeting women by either going to the gym or making me slightly more attractive. Yet I'm still to cowardly to look through those online dating sites and ask somebody out.

At the end of the day, despite all the criteria I have put out and all the restrictions I have put on myself, everything boils down to one factor - I like her and she likes me. Simple? I wish it was.

A few tidbits

To follow on from my previous post, I have never been tutored and have never tutored anyone, so I have no experience of tutoring. Obviously I have helped people with their homework in boarding school but that is as far as my expertise goes. Tutoring only helps marginally - either you don't have the enthusiasm or intelligence to lift you any further than what you can possible achieve. Also people put too much emphasis on exams and school. There are people who don't conform to the rigid system that entails during our secondary school education but when they get to the real world, they can achieve anything. Exams and interviews do not properly correlate with work or school performance.

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I don't know why Apple allow downloading of music from iTunes for Hong Kong customers. I want to download music now, since I don't really want to buy albums but it doesn't let me. This is why people illegally download music - because there is no way you can legally download music.

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Why can't the normal population understand that when you have a disease or medical condition, these things take time to heal, they don't necessarily will heal 100% and there is a limit what medicine can do. Medicine is not voodoo magic - take one pill and you can heal all the sicknesses you have. Patients have become more and more demanding, thinking what they hear from other people or what they read in magazines and the internet is correct without considering the opinion of an expert. I do understand it is their body and their decision to make but if they don't listen to the doctor's advice, why do doctors even bother explaining to the patients.

It's the same thing with people buying shares. They need to understand that shares will not automatically rise in price, it may take time to increase in value and they can go down in price. That is why I don't have any sympathy for those Hong Kong people who buy funds with shares from the Lehman Brothers. They were told about these shares and they still want their money back. If you cannot bother to listen, why listen at all.

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I'm very satisfied with how Arsenal's start to the this campaign has gone. Four wins in a row and an easy Champions' League group. Didn't like how Eduardo dived to win that penalty against Celtic on Wednesday. Arsene Wenger should drop him for the next game, even if it is against Manchester United. I don't want players of Arsenal doing that.

Dent in the wallet

When I graduated, I promised myself I would stop illegally downloading TV shows, since I was no longer a poor university student but instead a poor intern with a meagre salary. I don't download music from the internet, since I'm not an avid listener. I used to get computer programs online but stopped recently (I explain why later).

Nowadays I stopped downloading the TV shows. The last TV series I illegally downloaded was the second season of "Pushing Daisies", a brilliant dark comedy series which was tragically stopped after only two seasons. I'm still downloading the entire series of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" since I started that quite a long time ago and it is still downloading. I still have too many DVDs I still haven't seen

Most of the time I'm downloading TV shows which I cannot get on DVD or other paid means, such as the current series of "Top Gear" or "Mock the Week". If there was a subscription service, I would pay for those programs, as long as it was a reasonable price. The other major media I download are podcasts. It is great to have podcasts, since they are free and if you don't like music, there is another whole world of media you can listen to. I recently become more infatuated with comedy, so I download more comedy such as The Guardian's coverage of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

(One thing I don't understand is why they need to call podcasts 'podcasts'. They're just downloadable radio programs or audio programs. They're only called podcasts as an amalgamation of iPod and broadcast.)

Since I've become a medical officer, there have been numerous dents in the wallet recently. Firstly there are aspects of my job which require money, such as membership to the professional associations. I also had to pay back my mother for paying for the last two holidays I went on. The first item I bought when I became a medical officer was a car - the new Volkswagen Golf TSI (Mark VI). Unfortunately, due to the high demand, the car will only be delivered by October. That's actually a good thing, since it will cost me about four months wages. So by the time it will arrive, I would have earned enough money to repay my dad who paid for the car.

Recently I have been replacing many of my electronic items. The first electronic item I replaced was my notebook. My old notebook has started to break physically with cracks appearing at the bottom of the screen, the power button is slightly screwed up and every time I use too many programs, all the programs automatically close. After a long time slating off Microsoft and Windows, I decided to convert to the Force and get a Mac. I got a MacBook Pro just a few weeks ago. Since my Dad works for an university, I got a discount on the MacBook Pro and also got an iPod Touch for free. It took me some time to get use to Mac OS X operating system but I'm finding it great. I'm using my old notebook just for downloading porn.

Today I went to an electronics fair in Wan Chai. Since there were many items going cheap at the fair, I decided to go and blow my hard earn cash. I bought a new digital camera, an iPod station for my iPod touch, a new USB hard drive and a digital photo frame. Before people start saying I'm deviating from my leftist roots and become a material hoarder, I like to say that I need all this stuff. The digital camera we have at home is not very slim and has a very long delay when you press the button to take a photo. Additionally it doesn't belong to me - it belongs to my parents. The USB hard drive is required for work and for backing up my files from my two notebooks. Lastly I always whine about people taking photos with their digital camera, storing them in their computers and never looking at them again, which is why I got a digital photo frame.

I think that will be enough spending for now - it will be just bread and water for lunch for the next few weeks.

Tutoring

This is my first blog entry using my new MacBook Pro. No, I'm not going to take pictures of my new notebook or christen the laptop with a funny name like Sebastien or Johann. I'm just going to treat my MacBook Pro like a MacBook Pro and not like the new baby in my life.

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I still feel despondent about work. I'm starting to become my worst fear - a doctor who is gradually become more dismissive of patients complaints.

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One of my cousins recently got his results for his HKCEEs, which is equivalent to GCSEs or SATs. Unfortunately the results were not very good. To continue his secondary school education, one is required to have attained fourteen points in his or her HKCEEs. My cousin only got six points. He is now at a crossroads, whether to continue with the books or seek vocational training. As my family are well versed on education, my dad has been given my aunt (my dad's sister) plenty of advice.

I hate to be harsh in this situation but I have to say that in society, there will always be people who are destined to be doctors, lawyers and engineers and other people who destined to be mechanics, cooks or salespeople. What I am trying to say nicely is that there are clever people and there are stupid people. That doesn't mean that mechanics, cooks or salespeople contribute to society or won't earn a lot during their lifetime. I know a lot of my friends who cannot change a car tyre, boil an egg or properly fold clothes.

What I hate about today's society is that we put so much emphasis on education or more precisely proof of education. I don't doubt that knowledge is power and useful towards your life. Yet people wants so many A's during their exams to get into a good university to get a degree to earn lots of money. What we learn in school isn't really that useful in life. When did anybody need to know the dates of the World War II battles or the use of differentiation in everyday life. What they should teach us in school is practical stuff, from wiring a plug, cooking (both boys and girls) and economics.

We have gotten to the stage that we think an university degree is so important, parents and students are willing to fork out thousands of dollars to pay tutors to teach them stuff they should be taught by teachers in school, and those souped-up faux tutors who grace advertising boards like they were superstars or models don't really teach them anything. Students get taught how to perform well in exams, not the knowledge or skills which will last them a last time.

Education is important but know what education is important is much more vital.

Legalized lying

One of the good things about the British Broadcasting Corporation is the lack of advertising. I know many people find the idea of paying over one hundred pounds per year proposterous when they can get TV for free. Yet for the quality of programming the BBC offer plus the added bonus of not having to sit through minutes of non-sensical advertising is a price worth paying.

I remember two great quotes of advertising. One is by the great science fiction writer H.G. Wells: "Advertising is legalized lying." Any advert just tells you want you want to hear. Most of the stuff said in advertising is the twisted truth. There are two types of products whose advertisements illustrated this points - baby milk formula powder and beauty products. For those milk formula adverts, they always sprout multiple acronyms such as DHA which the formula milk contains. They insist it will make your baby more cleverer. It may be that these added nutrients will help your kid more intelligenct but as a doctor of the Hospital Authority, we are not allowed to recommend any milk formula powder and quite rightly. I, as a normal citizen and a doctor, will still insist that breast milk is still the best. And what is wrong with cow's milk anyway?

Just by looking at the woman in Hong Kong just shows none of the beauty products offered on TV and in magazines don't actually work - I don't see any beautiful women walking the streets in Hong Kong. I especially hate the adverts by FANCL starring that annoying Gigi Leung. Woman look up to her because they think she's beautiful but I don't find her that attractive. She really cannot sing or act in my opinion. All that is going for her is she's tall, but men don't necessarily want any lady taller than them.

The second quote I like by advertising is this: "Advertising gets you to buy items you don't need or want." It is quite shocking to hear the largest department in a company is usually the marketing department and most of the cost of a product is usually due to advertising and marketing. If we had half a brain, we would consider the advertisement but not necessarily obey it.

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Why do I feel listless at work? I'm cruising through my job at the moment, currently in first gear. I don't do any studying in the evening, which I should do. At times I do wish my job was a little bit harder and more demanding.

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I found out in a news report that women my age outnumber the males in Hong Kong. It should make me more in demand but I don't feel that. I am looking for someone but with my job, my personality, my psychiatric history and my demands I fell I'm more a liability than a piece of treasure.

The nanny state

Whilst watching an episode of the new series of "Top Gear", this game of 'car sauna' popped up.



The last part of the clip is what I want to emphasize about. Nearly every part of our lives requires pampering from the government. Every summer in Hong Kong there are alerts issued by the Hong Kong Observatory warning us that the weather is really hot. I can tell it is really hot by the sweat running down my face and my need for a cold drink. I don't need the weather girl to tell me go into the shade and get out of the sun.

I think 99% of the population comes under the category of "competent enough to know what 'hot' is". I understand the alerts and warnings are mainly for the elderly and other people who are generally incapable of thermoregulation. Yet if really cannot tell that the temperature is rising, should you really be living at all? What gets me are the people who know it is hot and do nothing about it. These are the really stupid hikers who trouble the ambulance services by not bringing enough water or shade with them.

The other area which really miffs me is hygiene. Since Hong Kong has been greatly affected by SARS, avian influenza and human swine flu, there has been great emphasis on washing our hands after doing anything dirty. I know this is supposed to prevent the spread of infection amongst the community but there is a downside to all this handwashing. We won't challenge our immune system enough if you don't give it enough virus and bacteria to fight. This leads to an inability to handle minor infections plus increase rates of allergic diseases such as food allergies, asthma and eczema. It is true the more hygienic a community becomes, there is a decrease in infectious diseases but there is an increase in allergic diseases. I also believe it might lead an increase to cancers, as the immune system handles those as well but I have no evidence to support this - it is my own personal opinion.

What I want to state is that we don't need a Big Brother to make decisions for us - we just need to get the information ourselves and make the choices ourselves.

Boy racer crazy

I was on-call for the second time in orthopaedics at on Wednesday. I admitted four patients throughout the day, was able to go out for dinner and sleep throughout the night. The work hasn't been that taxing. Since it is a small hospital, I don't have that many patients to handle. Currently I have eleven patients under my care, most of them run of the mill problems like back pain and foot ulcers. The cases are varied, so I have a great exposure to everything. The situation has left me with a considerable amount of time. I should be studying orthopaedics and ENT but my mind is not in it. I need to start picking myself up soon.

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Currently I'm in the process of buying a car. At the moment my father is driving me to work. It is not the most ideal situation, as the current hospital I'm working at has this strange policy that only the doctor or his/her spouse can be the owner of the car if applying for a parking permit. So I'm spending most of the trips in the morning eating breakfast whilst my dad chauffeurs me to work.

So what car am I buying? Since it is a first car for me (I'm excluding the Renault Megane Espace I had since I didn't own it), I'm obviously going for a small car. Unforunately the options are quite limited. My dad is always going on about resale values, so I had to rule out cars that I liked such as the Suzuki Swift. Also many of the European cars are expensive here in Hong Kong and if I was back in England, I would have considered the Ford Focus or the Fiat 500. I don't want something too run of the mill and boring, so the Honda Jazz and the Toyota Yaris are out.

I was seriously considering the BMW 1 series. It is a great car and well built. It is also rear-wheel drive, which I like. The only problem is that it is really costly on the wallet, going at HK$300K+ and that is a BMW. Unfortunately bankers who buy BMWs give them a bad name. I consider most BMW and Mercedes owners/drivers as cocks, who think they own the road just because they have an expensive car.

Most of us having some form of stereotyping people depending on what car they own.... which I'll elaborate on in a latter blog entry.

So what is my choice? I've decided to plump for the new VW Golf Mark VI. Not the GTI since that is out next year in Hong Kong. There is a waiting list for the car and I won't be able to get the car until about October - that is how popular it is.

So what does the VW Golf make me? A boy racer.

Cultural identity

I've just finished internship and started my life as an resident in family medicine. I will be rotating through various hospital specialties for the next two years. The hospital where I'm at is quite small, the patient workload is currently very small. Actually life is very easy at the moment. The maximum number of patients underneath my care is sixteen. I'm on-call today and I haven't had much to do. I've had two patients to admit and they weren't very difficult cases. There is a lot of benefit to having a nice 2nd on-call medical officer to call upon.

There are problems with being at a small hospital. The variety of cases at this hospital is not that great compared to a large hospital, so my scope will be very limited. There are no interns. Many of the duties which would have been performed by interns, such as printing specimen labels and renew drug sheets, have to be performed by medical officers. ]I will be performing various 'intern' duties for the next year. I already accepted I would have to intern duties but thankfully less than usual. That's the price to pay for the next two years and for having a reduced workload, compared to being at a larger hospital.

Also I have to attach to other specialties during each rotation. For this rotation, I have to attach to Ear, Nose & Throat Surgery. I don't mind it but the only problem is I have to go to another hospital ten times for the next three months, which has serious consequences on my time, duties and wallet.

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After ending internship and before entering residency, I went for five days in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was a very good holiday, with the hotel resort I was staying at a very good choice. If anybody stays in Chaing Mai, try "The Chedi" hotel resort for its service - truly world class.

That's not the main point of my blog entry. Whilst on vacation, I just couldn't help about the well being of the locals. Tourism is a big industry in Thailand with the economics and the culture a selling point. There are good sides to tourism, bring in much needed revenue plus exposing people to other people's cultures. Yet I was always thinking about the adverse effects of tourism. It brings out the unsavoury personality of people, trying to make as much cash as possible with as little ethic as possible. There were massage places and people selling their wares in every street. I don't oppose to people trying to make a living but at times there is a need for regulation, to prevent people getting ripped off.

Also I went to a local village to see the culture of the hill tribes. Most of the village was filled with shops trying to sell products varying from bags to dried fruit. I don't know if tourism is that great when you are trying to sell your cultural identity to raise a few bucks. I know Thailand is not alone in this problem, with every country having this dilemma.

I think exposing your cultural identity without looking like a sell-out can be done, it is just fine balance.