Author Archives: Administrator

Foodie Day

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Gosh today we ate too much!

We had dim sum planned with Ron’s classmates at Imperial Treasure Teochew Cuisine at Takashimaya on Orchard Rd. The service was fabulous and the food excellent. We haven’t had dim sum since we’ve been in Singapore so it was a nice change of pace and not too expensive. We were sufficiently stuffed for 24SGD per person which is cheaper than what we would’ve paid in the US for dim sum.

All the drinks and dim sum we shared:

We did a bit of shopping around the area as their was a Sanrio sale at Takashimaya and Ron needed new shoes. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Sanrio stuff but I at least got myself a water bottle for work that I can use for water and coffee. We did not have any luck buying shoes for Ron even though we went to Takashimaya, Isetan, Lucky Plaza, and Tang’s. We had dinner to go to at 6:30pm so we left to head towards Suntec City to a restaurant called Kuishin Bo. It’s a Japanese buffet. Ron’s classmate Hiroshi arranged this dinner to celebrate another classmate Jackson’s birthday which they did not get to celebrate during finals.

They had lots and lots of variety: udon, soba, teppanyaki, chawanmushi, sushi, snow crab, ice cream, mochi, tempura, etc. It was about 40SGD per person for Sat night and it includes soft drinks (alcohol is extra). Again, buffets I can’t resist so I stuffed myself to the brim then had a plate of desserts and also carrot cake for the birthday boy.

My plates of yummy food:

The birthday boy’s surprise birthday cake:

I am suffering from food coma. Time to vegetate.

Friday night BBQ

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I think my posts are getting more brief and not so exciting… it must be work. I’ll prob be posting less often as I realize it does take a long long time to get things set up. I don’t know how some people can post more than one time a day. Maybe I’m just not that good at on the spot thinking.

Anyways, let’s see, Thursday was Hello Kitty’s birthday! Happy Birthday Hello Kitty 🙂 No, I didn’t do anything to celebrate but just wanted to wish her a happy day! I was at work and spent time on the Level 8 Cancer Centre which is different because these are private pay patients. One of the bills for the patient I processed was over $10K! Yikes! But they usually do have some help in paying for it later, it’s not quite completely out of pocket.

Today I went back to the Level 4 Cancer Centre which was busy during the morning, slow in the afternoon, but then busy again right at closing. There were lots of last minute orders in the last hour of the day. It’s always like that on a Friday afternoon, you wish things could get done earlier but there’s always that rush no matter how much you plan ahead.

We had a BBQ here at our complex which is usually bring your own food and drinks. We had quite an excess of food and drinks though, I’m surprised people did not eat more. It was good to see all the partners again since I hadn’t seen most of them for the whole week. We usually have morning Aqua-Gym and Partner’s Lunch or other social events but I haven’t been able to attend and some things were cancelled this week. Tonight was going to be the Monsoon Ball but has been moved to November 23rd (due to the recent tragedies). Instead there was a BBQ and to also celebrate a classmate’s birthday, he got dunked in the pool.

It was nice to be at home though so I could easily flop into bed 😛

Happy Halloween!

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I hope everyone had a good Halloween. They don’t really do Halloween here except maybe the expats. I didn’t do anything special as I was having a bad day with shoes. Yes those lovely inexpensive shoes purchased here in Singapore… hurt your feet after a few hours of standing. I had a good day otherwise and am feeling a bit better each day at work.

Happy Halloween!

Relaxing with Margaritas

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My feet are aching after standing so much in the last two days and also after all the walking on vacation… but I’m feeling inspired after meeting with the manager (equivalent of director) of the department of pharmacy this afternoon.

This morning there was the weekly continuing education meetings for the department. The students were giving short presentations about their experience and observations at the recent Singapore Pharmacy Congress. It was good for me since I wasn’t able to attend.

Then I went upstairs to the pharmacy to join in the mix of things and get in everyone’s way… just kidding. I think they don’t mind teaching me but I do feel I’m in the way sometimes when it’s really busy.

I went down for lunch at 1pm and then had a meet with the manager of the department. He went through a powerpoint presentation with me and was rather inspiring. The field of Clinical Pharmacy is still pretty young in Singapore and he’s very dedicated to improving the practice of pharmacy and has always been an adovocate for the profession. After his “pep” talk, I started thinking about how I can help them in this endeavor and I hope that I can contribute to their growth during the time that I am here.

I also had some computer training in the afternoon which took up the rest of the day but at least I feel more comfortable with the system, so I can help more in day-to-day work.

We decided to go to Holland Village for some Mexican food tonight so went to Cha Cha Cha. We shared a pitcher of blueberry margaritas. I miss fresh blueberry baskets from Trader Joe’s! The margarita wasn’t bad, quite like a smoothie.

I had a tostada salad with chicken though, I miss making my own salads too!

I’m going to bed early tonight… 😛

First day at NUH

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Boy am I pooped.

Today we arrived back to Singapore around 1:15am but didn’t get home until after 2am and after settling in to sleep, it was prob around 3am. I woke up at 7am in order to be at work by 8:30am. I think it was good I slept on the plane a bit but was still a bit tired.

I went first to pick up my ID and white coats then headed to the pharmacy for some orientation. I’m assigned to the Cancer Center Pharmacy at NUH. They have two pharmacies, one of Level 4 and the other on Level 8 of the Kent Ridge Wing at NUH. I’ll likely be staying on Level 4 for most of the time. It services all subsidized outpatients and inpatients receiving chemotherapy.

I observed the work flow and learned a bit about their procedures. We went through my training manual and also all the standard operating procedures (SOPs) of the department.

I’m doing something called “pre-registration training” which will last for 3 months. I’m required by the Singapore Pharmacy Board to comnplete these 3 months of training along with passing their forensic exam which will be on December 1st. This training will be good for me to learn about the practice of pharmacy in Singapore.

I learned today about how controlled drug prescriptions are written here and also that they seem to have limited variety of controlled drugs here. For example, in US we have this drug called OxyContin in 10, 20, 40, 80, and 160 milligram dosage strengths. In Singapore, they seem to only carry 10 miligram. Possibly because there is less opiod use or else they have other substances to use. There’s lots of learning to be done here.

I also had Mandarin class today but almost wasn’t going to go as I was tired and there was a solemn feeling everywhere around today. During the recent break, 2 students passed away unexpectedly and there was a moment of silence held at the first day at INSEAD today. Ron said it was a sad day as everyone was in shock and in disbelief. You could feel everyone’s sadness in the air today. The weekend and the week has been a difficult time for lots of people and after a period of mourning… I believe that life will go on.