1:30am Monday morning. Yeah, I'm on night shift yet again. Not too bad at the moment. There was a surge just after midnight -- Singaporeans being their usual selves ( "Let's see, stay home or go to the ER at an unearthly hour and bug the exhausted doctors there with complaints that are NOT of the emergency variety??? Of course bug the doctors lah!" ). Sigh.

Well, we managed to clear the crowd, so one of the MOs is hopefully taking his nap now, while mine isn't due for another 4 hours, ack. Not feeling that great today, for, er, feminine reasons. Sometimes it sucks to be a woman, but anything's better than national service for sure. :P

So much to talk about today. The Straits Times was full of scandalous content again, as expected for its Sunday edition. One ST reporter commented to me previously that the editors WANT such stories, so there goes all remaining respect I had for our local paper. Examples for this morning include a piece on high-end karaoke lounges that cater to wealthy businessmen, an article about women in China going for plastic surgery in order to secure jobs, and another on sexual problems faced by local adults.

Regarding the first, the closest I got to a lounge in the Novotel Apollo Hotel is the corridor from the car park to the lobby. That short walk yielded 2 groups of drunken men accompanied by women wearing heavy makeup and skimpy clothes. What was I doing at the Apollo, you ask? Attending a school dinner with my mom, of course. What did you think? :)

As for the second, the key words I've picked out are from a plastic surgeon in China: "People should understand that plastic surgery can't fix all problems." The rest of the feature is dangerous propaganda -- women giving their testimonies about how going under the knife helped them look beautiful, get them acting jobs or higher salaries, etc. I have very strong opinions on cosmetic operations related to plain vanity and nothing else. There are far better ways of spending tens of thousands of dollars, and alternative methods of boosting self-esteem.

As for the third, I can't comment, 'cos I know nothing about it. :D It's interesting, however, to read that Singapore was found in a survey to have one of the world's lowest frequencies in terms of sexual intercourse ( the other two belonging to Sweden and Malaysia ). The highest rates exist in Eastern European countries -- which I suspect has something to do with the insanely cold weather there. The US came in with a surprisingly low number, but what I'd like to know is, where's China, India and Africa in all this? For countries with exploding populations and STD scourges, you'd think they'd be high on the list.

Back to the ER. A friend of mine, who's also a year-mate and current fellow department MO, had the F-word hurled at him earlier this evening, from none other than an NS boy. Nasty bugger, that one. Sounded like he had some "supratentorial problems" too ( check with a doctor friend if you want to know what this means ). My poor friend is usually effectively stern with such people, but might have been caught offguard this time, because I didn't hear him scold back. If it had been me, I would've given him a piece of my mind, 'cos my hormones are making me extremely irritable these days, and I'd been more than happy to unload some of that tension if given sufficient reason. Bring it on, baby! :)

The bird flu epidemic is spreading, with authorities cautioning about a scale possibly similar to that of SARS. No fun. Okay, enough said. :(

Am tempted to check out Xiaxue's blog, after hearing about how horrible she is. Darn it, re-minisce! Why did you have to start a war and pique my interest?! :P Hmmm... I'll think about it. :)