Work Place Bullying

It came to my knowledge that 1 of the anaesthetist who did 1 of our list for us was asked to leave by the public hospital she was working for due to verbal abuse of staff & patients. Anti work place bullying is a big thing here. We had to view the work place bullying video every year & do a test on it. Still, I was surprised to hear of that. Unlike on Sg, 他们不是说说而已。

How many times have we been screamed at unreasonably in my previous job? There simply isn't any use to bring it up. A staff did & was penalised for it. This is exactly what's wrong. They, the bullies, are allowed to get away with it. So they have every incentive to keep at it.

Sacking the bully drives home the message that work place bullying is not tolerated. More importantly, it reinforces that everyone is worthy of respect. 我们都是人。我们没有贵贱之分。This is something severely lacking in Sg.

2nd Spring In Perth

Spring came way too fast. It certainly feels that way. We're having a 3 days temperature spike, with tomorrow forecasting to hit 31°c. I'm reverting to the night time "headache" of sweating if I have a blanket on but shivering if I have it off. I'm sure pretty soon we'll have to switch to a thinner blanket.

The fly trap I've set up in late winter has already caught 1/5th bottle of flies. I'm just thinking to myself, how many more will it trap comes summer? The bottle is starting to emit a foul stench due to decomposing flies which also works to lure even more unsuspecting flies. But I dread the day I have to clear it so I can mix a new batch of the fly attracting powder.

It's also my 1st day back to scouting for the 1st time in 5 weeks. My regular anaesthetic nurse is back from her holiday so I've passed the baton back to her.

I've got activities planned for this weekend for advance birthday celebration for hubs. Really looking forward to it. In the meantime, I really got to work on getting my fitness level up again. I've got my S Health app set up for working towards a 5 km run & I'm really excited. Let's enjoy spring!

Strawberry Pilgrimage 2015

2nd year running. Perhaps it'll become something of a yearly pilgrimage. We're early this year, thanks to Jen's heads up. The strawberry fields had just been opened as of yesterday to the public. Immediately, I texted hubs, "Let's go tomorrow (today)!" Great minds think alike. Apparently, Nix had already asked hubs to join them today.

Happy man with the biggest strawberry we could find.

Based on last year's experience, I chose to wear slippers as I badly dirtied my track shoes & not to mention the discomfort of having sand in my shoes. I also brought a pair of scissors to cut the strawberries rather than using my nails to pinch the stems off. I had a hard time getting the dirt out from under my nails last year & it just won't do for a scrub nurse to have grubby nails.

We still paid $10 for the tray but it was evident that it had shrunk in size. Also, this year, we have to pay cover charge of $2 per head. It was explained to Nix that groups of people came in together & bought 1 tray. But along the way, they picked & ate so much strawberries that they decided to charge $2 for every person without a tray. Since the tray had shrunk, we decided to have a tray of our own.

Strawberry almond crumble with strawberry ice cream.

I had already sourced out a couple of recipes that utilises strawberries, 1 of which being strawberry ice cream. So last night, I stuck the ice cream tub into the freezer in preparation for today. Looks like there'll be plenty of desserts coming up.

Sama Sama

I don't usually comment on things such as politics. I'm just not interested enough. But election after election, it becomes apparent that it is the same every single time. Be it ruling party or opposition, they resort to dishing out dirt on the other party.

Whatever happened to "不管别人做的好不好, 自己要先做的好。不管别人做的对不对, 自己要先做的对。"? Fight fair not hit below the belt. Let your actual proof do the talking for you. Sad to say, none of them seem to fit the criteria.

Part Time Vs Full Time

Today, my manager asked if I will be interested converting to full time rather than my 30 hours a week part time position. If they offered it to me right at the beginning, I would have taken it. I work full time hours as it is, some weeks slightly over 30 hours, some weeks slightly over 40. It balances itself out. I get paid overtime when I exceed 8 hours of work a day (which is quite frequent by the way, probably 3 to 4 times a week).

Switching to full time means I get a constant salary. I'll get paid the same amount every month. If I do work over time, it will be accumulated till I've got enough hours to get a day off. If I don't hit 38 hours working in theatre, I'll have to be deployed out to the clinic. Not such a good deal to me. Until they make it compulsory, I'll stick to my part time arrangement.

Prophetic Dream?

During the Reiki class, my teacher asked us to pay attention to changes in sleep patterns & dreams. Reiki can enhance your dormant psychic abilities & make its presence known through dreams. We dream everytime we sleep. We just don't remember. But when you wake up at the right time, you will.

I had a night full of nightmares a few weeks ago. I only remembered 2 of them. I was being chased by a gigantic crocodile along a HDB corridor. It was not the new HDBs that have been popping up recently. It was a long corridor that I remember from my childhood days. By now, that HDB flat must be over 30 years old. It was rapidly gaining on me. I ducked into a stranger's flat, slammed the wooden door shut & laid belly down on the floor. I then put my finger to my lips, signalling the owner to keep quiet. I could hear the crocodile crawl past.

I woke up & I drifted back to sleep. Then, I was trying to use 1 of those single unit stove plus oven. But to my horror, parts began to fall off the top of the oven onto the racks. Water started pouring into the oven from apparently nowhere since there wasn't even an overturned pot of water on the stove top.

Being chased is a very common dream. It signifies that you're running away from something in real life. I wonder if the 2nd dream is trying to show me how afraid I was of having my goal or life falling apart. Not so sure about the water though.

Just few days ago after graduation, I had this dream about Ton Ton. It started off freaking me out. His nose fell off. I picked it up for further examination. It was crusty & hard. I quickly looked at Ton Ton to check how he is. To my surprise, he still has a nose. His nose is moist & healthy looking. He looks absolutely good & happy. It is my hope that all illnesses & diseases will now fall away from him, leaving a healthy Ton Ton.

The Best Day Of My Life

In the operating theatre, there is a lolly jar. I hardly help myself to it unless I've gone hypo & need a hit of sugar. Recently, it's been topped up with individually wrapped soft chews from The Natural Confectionery. The interesting thing is, each wrapper has a different question printed on it. We've been having some fun answering them.

Are you a cat or dog person? No brainer there for me. If you can be a cartoon character, who will you be? I actually said Donald Duck. He's so grouchy but he always comes through at the end. My colleague showed me 1 today that goes, "Which is the best day of your life?". My 1st response was, "This is a tough 1." I've given it some thought while waiting for the surgeries to end. The answer surprised me.

It was the day my ex announced that he was divorcing me. There was uncontrollable sobbing, followed by days of lying in bed staring at the ceiling. But in hindsight, it was the catalyst that brought about the biggest change in my life. I wouldn't be where I am today had it not happened.

It is hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel when we are drowning in sorrow. If we can just dig up that little bit more strength & courage to pull ourselves through, we'll often realise whatever had happened was for the best. It could take years but the most important thing is not to let it harden your heart. Instead, use it to propel yourself into greater heights especially when it comes to kindness & let it be a chance to rid yourself of your flaws for it will always be a work in progress.

The world has enough cynics as it is. Let us try a little kindness today. It'll probably change your life.