Pharmacy Guild Dinner

Alex and I attended the annual ACT Pharmacy Guild Dinner last Thursday. We were in a big rush getting ready for the dinner because I had to leave work at 6pm and the dinner was at 7pm. We rushed home and had just 15 minutes to get ourselves ready before running out of the main door. One cannot afford to be late for such formal events especially since its meant to for socializing and making business contacts. And really, a quarter of an hour is not NOT enough for a lady to do her hair, her make up, dress up and choose her shoes.

Anyways, this entry is mainly for pics. This was our final look with only 10 minutes of primping..

Pink champagne was served all night. Wouldn't miss it for the world..

A pic with hubby

Picture with Vicky
With Mel, Vicky and Olivia


Final shot of the night - looking a little pink? Must be from the champagne :)

cheryl

Not your regular Monday

There was an incident at work today. A little drama to get us through the Monday blues at work can't hurt right? :) It was work as usual until a sensitive nose in the office picked up an offending scent. Soon, everyone was wrinkling their noses and making comments as they caught the scent. Something in the room was producing a burnt smell.

Some with more pronounced nasal capabilities said it was an electrical burn smell versus the regular wood burn smell. I for one, do not have the best nose. I have a good tongue (hence my appreciation for food) but sadly, those sensors are not matched in my nose (hence my lack of knowledge in all things perfumey)

After 15 minutes, the smell still lingered in the air. Since I'm still somewhat a newbie, I was wondering and waiting for when someone was gonna say the EVACUATE word. I had recently attended an EMERGENCY course which is a compulsory course for everyone at work and had learnt that there is a fire warden in every office. However, I had no idea who the fire warden was in my office. So work for me progressed as usual while I waited and watched.

The wait wasn't long. Soon someone said, " EVERYONE EVACUATE! " There weren't any bells, no whistles, no sound of an incoming fire engine. I kinda expected the loud, deafening clanging of a fire bell ala Malaysia but there was just the sound of shuffling feet and everyone rejoicing because of this imposed tea break.

The firemen came 5 minutes later in their full gear. After performing the necessary checks, the culprit was identified to be a faulty centrifuge machine which had earlier on in the day made odd noises. So the theory of an electrical burn was right.

Oh and what of the fire warden? I still don't know who it is but apparently when the smell was first detected, the fire warden was approached about the situation and asked to give advice about what to do. The answer provided?

" I'm too busy..."

Hehe....
An interesting day today was. - Yoda


cheryl

24 Degrees

It was 1 degree warmer today than it was on Saturday! Woohoo! So happy.. Although I must say with the heat coming on, we are going to have to look at buying a fan or a reverse cycle air conditioning unit. Summer in Canberra can be quite unbearable. We have both extremes of cold and hot. Not the best combinations.

Oh remember my budding tree outside the balcony? Well budding tree is budding no more! Say hello to flowers~!


I spotted some green leafy goodness sprouting out of some of its branches so hey, soon we will have fruit!

More maturing green leaves on this branch.. Only problem with this tree is the attraction it has for bees. Going out on the balcony can be quite scary at times. I have counted up to 5 buzzing around, too close for comfort.

I also bought two mini-pots of the coriander plant. I can't call it a tree or a bush can I? What is the 'penjodoh bilangan' for a plant? Sepohon? Sejambak? Se-something? I can't remember and I can't think of an English equivalent. So coriander plant it is. :) Its so convenient to have them around. Its fantastic with chicken porridge, tom yam soups, steamed fish and some stir fry vegetables too. Fresh herbs are the best. With the amount of these I use on my dishes, I won't even call it a garnish. I have trimmed them for use 4 times so far and I have been told the more I trim the more it grows.

Oh and in case you are wondering why buy two? I decided to buy two pots of coriander in case one of them didn't survive me. :) I don't have much of a green thumb. I thought if I managed to keep these producing O2 and CO2, I'll then get other mini pots like parsley or thyme.
Will see...... so far so green!




cheryl

Another day at work

The hospital has been going through some maintenance work lately. Signs are being put up all over the place warning people to watch out for wet paint on doors, walls and railings. Generally the hospital works with the same color scheme on its walls. The color looks to me like a mix of beige, off white and light yellow. Recently I discovered that the color the hospital has been using for its walls is called 'Mortuary Cream'. How morbid is that?? A rather grim prediction for the patients don't you think?

* DISTURBING

Sometimes we have to collect specimens from around the hospital and bring it back to the lab. Some items have to be kept cold and we use padded bags for such collections as it keeps the specimen chilled till its arrival. I regularly use a big shoulder bag cos you'll never know when something huge needs to be collected. The speci's are usually in a see through plastic container with yellow or green screw on caps and the containers are subsequently placed into a biohazard zip lock bag for additional safety. There was once I collected a mid sized container in a zip lock and placed it in the bag. While heading to the lab, I heard a 'swish swash' going on that sounded suspicious. I gingerly looked into the shoulder bag and saw some liquid flowing around the base of the bag.

Absolutely gross! It turns out the screw cap was not tightly screwed on by the nurse and the zip lock bag was not tightly pressed down. While walking, I had effectively swished the liquid into the shoulder bag. It was not pleasant. In case you are wondering what liquid was going around the bag, it was formalin. So when I arrived at the lab, I had to don on gloves, arm myself with napkins, grabbed a bottle of Viraclean (an anti-everything cleaner) and proceeded to the big sinks with huge taps. The bag was entirely washed out, properly sprayed and completely wiped with Viraclean. We can't take any risks with formalin because firstly the fumes of evaporating formalin is quite pungent+dangerous and it came with the specimen was soaked in it. So think internal body bits soaked in that and you get the idea...

* DISGUSTING

cheryl

Warmest day yet...

It was 23 degrees today! So since the weather was great, Alex and I decided to spend some time out. Our location of choice was the Direct Factory Outlet (DFO). This outing was a little exciting because this is Canberra's first DFO. We have a Brand Depot here which houses a rather wide selection of cheap shopping but DFO is twice its size and that means more cheap cheap shopping! Girly heaven...!

The DFO opened its doors on Thursday just 2 days before and apparently the queues to go into the place that day was snaking along the building an hour before doors opened up. Sadly for brand depot, it was devoid of shoppers that weekend as everyone checked out the new place.

The weather was warm, sun was out and plenty of people were out in their t-shirts, t-backs and shorts. However I still wasn't game to wear so little because it is rather cold in the shade. So I pulled out a skirt from storage and layered on two tops to keep warm. No need for jackets for the first time in months! I wonder if I will ever get used to the cold and stop whining about it :p

Oh.. and I didn't buy anything from DFO. I did see some items which tempted my purchasing impulse but I held back. No more shoes for me.

For now. :)

cheryl

Spring is here!

Tulips at Floriade (photo from an Australian travel blog)

At the risk of being redundant, I have to say spring is here! I'm so excited that it will soon be warm and I can finally dress like I used to, not having to look like a walking marshmallow... Yeah well, wearing many layers may not really make me look like marshmallow (unless I bought one of those bubble white jackets which I think a lot of Asian chicks here tend to favor) but all the layering can really make you feel like one.


With that said, spring is here! Haha... Flowers are starting to bloom and soon the yearly flower fest at Canberra will begin. In fact, it will start Saturday next week. If anyone has any plans to visit Canberra, it should be around mid Sept to early Oct because as some of you may know, there isn't much to do in Canberra although it is the country's capital city so why not make the best of the trip and come during spring for the flower fest? It's one more activity to make the trip more worthwhile :) The flower fest is called Floriade and its a huge huge park of flower bed after flower bed. It could take up to 2 hours for a slow stroll through it all. If you love tulips you will love Floriade because they have every variety and every color planted. There is a yearly theme for Floriade and this year's is about films that shaped Australia. I will post pictures when we go for an outing.



Anyways, its spring and No.32 has an apricot tree! Yes! Our neighbouring unit has a tree that has branched out really significantly and a huge part of it is right outside our dining room balcony. I have been told that it will bear great fruit sometime January and since winter is now officially over, I'm starting to see buds! Soon it will flower prettily and we have something else to look at from the balcony unlike the bare dry branches we have been looking at for the past 3 months. I'm also looking forward to tasting some of that fruit :)

The sight of the tree from our balcony

Budding tree

I know what you are thinking.... can I do that since its a tree from the neighbour? Well apparently I can because its growing on our side of the house and also because the neighbouring unit is a 3 unit flat style housing so we don't know who actually grew the tree or if the person is still staying there. Though the unfortunate thing with this scenario is that we will have to pay to get the tree trimmed because we don't know the person who planted the tree. It is currently branching out in a massive way and in the long run, it may damage our garage roof if we don't get it cut down some. Anyhow till then, we will be enjoying fruit in January... exciting!

Hehe... I'm just so happy warmer days are coming!



cheryl

Interesting Characters

If there is any place one would want to look for unique characters, a hospital would the right place. It is no surprise since a hospital opens its doors to everyone, injured or sick or just slightly off the rocker. Chances of bumping into interesting people are higher in a hospital than say the shopping centre or the library.

I will mention four interesting people I have bumped into at the hospital.

1. The pirate - I call this guy the pirate because everyday he wears a thick gold hoop for an earring on one ear. It is gold and it is a rather big hoop. Plus the fact that he has a short goatee, slight moustache and no hair on his head going gives me more of the 'pirate' image.

2. The belter - There is this lady who wears a grey cardigan or jumper with pants or a skirt on a daily basis with a thin red belt cinching her waist. No matter which top or bottom she changes into, the red belt is a permanent fixture in her outfit.

3. Young enough to take the stairs - I was walking on the third floor one day when I was stopped by a lady who I estimated to be 70++ years young. She wanted to know where the stairs were. I then asked her where it was she wanted to go. She then said she wanted the 9th floor. I then said the stairs were just opposite the lift and I can show her the lift so she could take it up. Her response?

" Oh its ok I wanted to walk up " she said.
I then said " Are you sure? It is 6 floors away.." (secretly thinking maybe she thought 9 minus 3 equals 2 or something)
She responded, " Yes, yes I came too early to visit my friend so I want to walk up and get there at 11am."

It was then 10.45am. I guess it could take her 15 minutes to climb 18 flights of stairs.

4. Man on wheelchair - I was walking down this really long corridor at the hospital when I spotted man on a wheelchair at the opposite end of the corridor. The reason he caught my eye was not only because he was wheeling himself but he was wheeling himself backwards! At first I thought maybe he had gone by too fast, missed a door and was going backwards to turn into it. But nope... he was slowly wheeling himself backwards from one end of the corridor to the other end. This corridor is close to 200m long.......................................

Interesting people = interesting days


cheryl

A Week On...

As mentioned in my previous entry, I have some stories to tell. Its been a week since I posted an entry and here's hoping you will find this particular event a valid post :)

At the place where I work, we have a staff common room which seats about 20 people comfortably (that meaning not having to eat with the person next to you elbow to elbow) The staff room has 2 microwaves, 2 fridges, sandwich hot plate, hot water, free supply of coffee, tea, sugar, milk, cups, stirrer, forks, spoons, knives - everything one would need for a tea break or lunch break with the exception of food of course. Everyone brings their own and warms it up to their own liking. It's a nice room with a few novels, plenty of magazines, daily newspaper and some sofas for comfortable slouching.

So during my first week, I was having lunch alone when I saw a fellow worker walk in for lunch. He headed to the fridge, bent a little over and proceeded to look for his lunch. As he rummaged through the shelves, there was a thud and he swore in response. Something had dropped to the ground. As he moved away (he probably thought no one was watching) I saw that he had dropped a tub of margarine on the ground. The tub had overturned with the opening of the tub face downwards on the floor. The lid had fallen off.

The man then lifted the tub off the floor, lo and behold, a square of margarine had fallen on the ground. He coolly picked it up, put it back into the tub and chucked the tub back into the fridge.

I know right? I can hear resounding "Eeews..." :)

* Disgusting

The poor person who left their margarine in there for their breakfast bun or lunch sandwich is going the find their margarine rather 'grainy' on their bread.

I only hope the floor had just been cleaned that morning......

cheryl