Green Flower Vintage Dress

Vintage Collection #1

This week

This week just started for me today. Worked on Sunday, off yesterday and gng to be working all through to sat morning since I'm on the graveyard shift this week. The doc is also on night call quite often this week, which works out well I guess. Can't wait for wed to come too cos we have a swimming and dinner date with the other lee family! They always bring a smile to my face those little lees... :) but for now got to figure out about work to be done in the wound project I'm involved in. I'mearningnew things every day be it in the ward or in this project. It's good cos I like learning new things. But the process of learning can sometimes be difficult.

Yep, that is my week ahead. Time really flies.. It's already march. Wow

With love

A weekend

On my day off today, and having a cup of latte at east coast park macs along with the hoards of people here while waiting for e doc to come back from hob nobbin' with his friends who are mending the medical section of the biathlon today.


With love

Life as a nurse in Singapore

As all of you know, I'm a qualified nurse working in Singapore. Many of you would be familiar with the role of a staff nurse. Basically we care for the patients well being in a holistic manner taking into consideration all aspects of their health.

It's not easy being a nurse in sinapore. As a staff nurse in my B2 ward, I'm expected to care for 12 patients with the help of 1/2 other collegues. While u serve medication and look into the orders that have been ordered, your juniors will help u with the more hands on parts of nursing care. They help with feeding, hygiene, and taking parameters. Depending on the rank of ure collegues, they would be able to help you more if they are staff nurses.

This style of working in Singapore is team nursing. In comparison to Melbourne where u are responsible for all aspects of care for your 4 patients. The pace of work is also so much faster in Singapore. Initially I couldn't get used to it but after 1 yr things are a lot easier.

Do I regret working in Singapore?

No. Yes, it's crazy here. Nurses bare the most of all mistakes made. There is still this doctors are so much superior mentality amongst the nurses and the community we deal with. However, this comes with the fact that as nurses, we do not pull our own weight and do not take the extra effort to constantly improve our knowledge and care. Doctors also need to learn to treat us with respect and as their colleagues and not their hand maidens.

Trying out my new app

This photo was taken with my iPhone and subseuently edited with the app called Lomos, which gives the photo a polorized look.

:)

Love the iPhone apps!

With love

Rest days

Rest days or day offs as we nurses call them are well deserved breaks that we get any day of the week depending on ure assignment for the week. With our current 5-6 day week (I.e. 3 day offs in 2 weeks or a 5 & 1/2 work week) day offs so come often even; though it does feel forever before the next off day. For me, I had the opportunity to do research 2 days a week. What do I do? Read literature articles, appraise it and etc.

Anyway back to e rest day. Since my sis was off too today we decided to hang out together. Met at somerset at 10am to have brunch at this bakery along kiliney rd called simply bread I think by le bijoux. Shared a brunch set and each had our own coffee. Total cost = $15. Not bad... Had a lesuirely lunch and subsequently bought some breads for our dinner cookout later.







Next it was off to visit someone in hospital and following that Tangs to check out some retro fridge that they were thinking of buying for the new apartment. Bought a chopper (haha... Which e doc said after, 'who u want to chop?') and found e fridge which was really tiny and expensive! Immediately the thought of such a cool fittting in e house was scraped... Just not worth it.

Next stop, Taka. It was really quite the tai tai life. Moving from one shopping centre to e other. Jie casually mentioned that there was a Kate Spade shop in taka and I started getting excited! We went to have a look as usual With no intention to buy since e prices were well out of my budget though I always dreamt of getting one. I suddenly remembered that I had a taka voucher given to me for my birthday. Quite a sizable amount too so I casually asked whether one could use taka vouchers at the store and the answer was Yes! And the rest I'm sure u can guess. Checked out the bag I've been eyeing, recheckee the cash value of my vouchers, got encouraged by the sister to buy and presto! I'm the proud owner of my first branded bag! :)



With love

A long time

It's been a while since I've blogged. Life as a nurse in the Singapore acute hospital is hectic and tiring. There is so much to know and u can never stop learning and re-learn.I guess I could also blame it on my brain which is like a sift. Knowledge are constantly being lost to replace new ones. Need God to really help me retain all the info in my brain!

Life as a married has also been quite challenging in terms of more housework, juggling of time to accomplish all that needs to be done. Feel like I have changed too. Whether it's for the better or worse, I dunno. Maybe worse maybe better. Anyway, this is my attempt to start blogging again. Hope it works!





With love

The last day of 2009

Spent the last day of the year celebrating my sister's birthday at the White Rabbit @ Harding Road, where we had a 'chi-chi' lunch with Xiao Yang, Gen and Sarah.







lazy to write... so just enjoy the photos folks. Happy New Year!

Btw, our wedding photos are up on facebook. =)

Irony

Funny it is how our circle line is built with such vast corridor space when on land our little red dot is in need of space

the DRESS

Okay, 

I've got quite a few comments from people regarding what the dress looks like. To please all, here's a front view of it. 

Enjoy.

 (though i dont really know what the fuss is about.. it's just a dress you guys... ) 

p.s. all that hair is mine.. I know... so much?!? =) yes.. 

Gaining weight or losing my tone ?

Its crappy you know, just a few months of ill-discipline and you lose your tone in your muscles. you gain back the weight you spend months even years getting rid of on for it to come back to haunt you in a matter of weeks. It creeps up on you. you dont notice it until its too late !

Better to give than to receive

Today, I had the opportunity to be a receiver and a giver. 

A receiver? 

Yes, I was blessed with an off day today. Spent it waking up at 9am, having breakfast,watching tv till 12 plus, reading from 1plus to 2, taking a nap from 2 to 330pm. Subsequently, left for my appointment at 4plus to the Lee household so that the Lee kids could model their clothes for me to see. 

Had loads of fun with them as they showed off and took photos in the pretty frock and suits. =) The doc met us there at 5ish -6 and we brought Mrs Lee and the kids out for dinner leaving Mr Lee to do some studying for his quiz tomorrow. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously, watching the kids and just chit chatting with Gen over dinner. Caleb and Sarah are really good kids and e doc even said it was good practice! Ha! I guess so... but.. even then no way, no kids for at least the first year. 

After sending them home, we paid our friend's dad a home visit to see how he was and to pass him some medical equipment that was required. Today I realize that God has placed in our hearts this burden of caring for those we know who need medical attention outside of the hospital. Especially nowadays where doctors are becoming more specialized. Often I find that families and patients have many doctors but no one doctor who is able to give them overall care of their health, putting everything together. I'm glad the doc is going into internal medicine and not surgery. He's interested and cares about all the medical issues, from the fevers, to the coughs, to the swollen legs and all that jazz. I love him for that. For caring enough to make this effort with me to go make this visit after work. 

And our life is made more meaningful. Indeed, its better to give than to receive. I feel blessed that I'm a receiver of many good things in my life. But i feel even more blessed when we are able to be a blessing to others when we can. 

Thankful for rest days

In my line of work, we are very thankful for rest days. everyday seems like the same to us...especially this week.

Worked 4 mornings in a row this week and found myself automatically 'switching off' at 10pm every night. Yesterday, after attending marriage prep after work and subsequently having dinner to celebrate Ruth's birthday (e doc's sis), I literally just fell asleep at 10pm while e doc was driving me home!

I dont know how my body does it... it just shuts down. e doc was apparently talking to me and i didnt respond to him. hahah

Nevertheless, I'm glad and thankful for rest days!

Getting through the many Ups and Downs of Life

I have not blogged for quite awhile now.. This is primarily because:

1. I'm now working full time again after studying for two years
2. I'm working shift - hence irregular hours
3. I'm constantly tired so every free moment is spent either napping on my living room couch or stoning in front of the tube box
4. There are alot of things e doc and I got to settle in preparation for the upcoming next stage of life

But you guys deserve an update, so here's an attempt:

Work
Life in the healthcare sector back home has been a mixture of emotions. It's definitely not a bed of roses for me as I adjust to the culture, the working environment and pace of the hospital. There have been many many times during the course of the past 6 months or so when I have felt upset, stressed, distressed. I have cried, vented in frustration and what nots as well.

The doc i must say has been really patient with me. However, there were times that he reprimands me and i usually out of pride resent it. In my human nature, I resented it cos it reminded me that I'm not great. I admit that many times I run to him first before I go to my Maker

But these trying times have also made me realise how much I need God's provision, support, strength, wisdom, compassion and mercy. God has been extremely patient with me while I go through periods of rebellion; not reading His Word. But He has always been there waiting for me to come back to Him.

Just like today. When I woke up, all I thought was, I dont want to go to work. I was on the verge of crying out of desperation and tiredness. It was too early to moan and groan to the doc so I could not turn to him. Instead I turned to Him. I asked Him to help me through this day. To take control of it.

And you know what? Yes, the day went well. He watched over me through and through. I want to go to Him first and foremost.. not as a second option. Im still learning..

There is so much to learn about depending on God for everything in life. That's what i want to achieve.. to be daily content with what He has given me and to be dependent on Him for every aspect of my life on a daily basis.

More Photos on Gracie-buddy

To all my dearest friends who have posted their comments in the past two blog entries:

Thank you for the kind comments you have given. =) Some of you have requested that I post them on facebook.. but not so keen cos i think i want to keep some mystery to the photos for now. but here are some other ones for you guys to comment.

We have to choose the pictures for our photoshoot and i'm really putting it off cos there are so many to plough through! dunno which ones i should put in.

Haha..1. At the Link Bridge

2. Intercontinental Hotel

3. Garb: Liverpool T-shirts
Location: East Coast Park

4. Same as above

some other shots

Photography by: One Eye Click
Location: Bedok Jetty
Clothes: Our own
Flowers: Country Florist (Siglap Center)
Man on Bike: Passerby

Sneak Peeks

Here are just 4 of the many many many photos from our photo shoot.. some better than the others (like we look fat etc..) ... but all in all we are pretty happy with them.. hahah enjoy.. let us know your comments.

Faith, Hope, and Love

Unveiling our beauty really just means unveiling our feminine hearts.

It’s scary, for sure. That is why it is our greatest expression of faith, because we are going to have to trust Jesus—really trust him. We’ll have to trust him that we have a beauty, that what he has said of us is true. And we’ll have to trust him with how it goes when we offer it, because that is out of our control. We’ll have to trust him when it hurts, and we’ll have to trust him when we are finally seen and enjoyed. That’s why unveiling our beauty is how we live by faith.

Unveiling our beauty is our greatest expression of hope. We hope it will matter, that our beauty really does make a difference. We hope there is a greater and higher Beauty, hope we are reflecting that Beauty, and hope it will triumph. Our hope is that all is well because of Jesus, and that all will be well because of him. So we unveil beauty in hope. And finally, we unveil beauty in the hope that Jesus is growing our beauty. Yes, we are not yet what we long to be. But we are under way. Restoration has begun. To offer beauty now is an expression of hope that it will be completed.

And unveiling beauty is our greatest expression of love, because it is what the world most needs from us. When we choose not to hide, when we choose to offer our hearts, we are choosing to love. Jesus offers, he invites, he is present. That is how he loves. That is how we love—sincerely, as the Scripture says, “from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). Our focus shifts from self-protection to the hearts of others. We offer Beauty so that their hearts might come alive, be healed, know God. That is love.

(Captivating , 147)

God knows better than I do

You know, God really knows better than I do. As my new phase of life draws nearer, I find that there are new things I have to tackle..like setting up my own home, managing my finances, budgeting, buying furniture etc. 

And really, if i didnt study overseas, all this would be really new to me and i wouldnt know what to make of it. But I believe that my experience renting an apartment on my own, figuring out the electricity etc really helped. It's a different system here and all but nevertheless the experience will benefit. 

There will be more updates along the way as the doc and I start on this new journey of life. Please pray for us as we take it one step at a time.